Impeachment reimagined: a new approach to addressing Biden’s corruption

Let’s be clear, Joe Biden deserves to be impeached. There is more than enough evidence that he was involved in a pay-for-play influence peddling scheme, that he lied about it, and that he involved high ranking government officials to cover it up.

But let’s also acknowledge that we live in the real world, and expecting the GOP to do the right thing is more often than not a fool’s errand. And, to be fair to them, even if they were to impeach Biden there is virtually no chance he would be convicted in the Senate and, if he were, Kamala Harris would be elevated to the presidency, which somehow may result in an even worse situation for the country. What’s more, the public might view an attempt to impeach Biden as the kind of tit-for-tat partisan squabbling that turns off many independents. 

So what are they to do? Well, here’s an option. They could conduct a reverse impeachment hearing, and hold an inquiry into whether to rescind the first impeachment vote against Donald Trump, which was based on his request to Ukrainian authorities to look into the corruption of the Biden family in Ukraine, or not.

Why should they do this? Well, to begin with, the issue at the heart of that impeachment was that Trump threatened to withhold aid from Ukraine unless they “dug up” dirt, or as Democrats frequently argue, “made up” dirt against the Bidens. So the central question to be asked as to whether or not to rescind the impeachment would be, “was President Trump justified in asking Zelensky to look into the corruption of the Biden family?” What better vehicle could there be to lay out before the American people the crimes of the Biden family without having to actually call for Biden to be removed?

This strategy has several advantages: For one, Democrats can’t mount a legitimate defense like they could in an impeachment because theoretically, Biden wouldn’t be on trial. The question wouldn’t be “is Joe Biden guilty” rather it would be, “was it reasonable for President Trump to inquire about corruption in Ukraine?”  All of the evidence presented would go to answering the latter question, not the former, but for all practical purposes would in fact answer both questions in the affirmative.

Sure Democrats could call back some of their witnesses from the first impeachment but do you really think people like Marie Yovanovitch want to come back and testify about what they knew was happening in Ukraine? What we now know happened in Ukraine? Even if they did, they’d have little to offer in terms of refuting the claims about Biden’s corrupt activities.

Secondly, the hearing could be framed as seeking to right a wrong rather than taking revenge against the opposite political party. This would make the proceedings more palatable and the media would have a very difficult time convincing the mainstream that this was a partisan witch hunt.

What’s more, it would give the GOP an excuse to subpoena all correspondence between Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, or Schiff and “The Anonymous Whistleblower”, or Schiff and his staff regarding the events that took place during the first impeachment hearing. I’m pretty sure there are quite a few interesting tidbits we might be able to discover from that paper trail as well.

Furthermore, since Donald Trump was not convicted in the Senate, the House wouldn’t need its approval on any such resolution; impeachment requires a two-thirds vote in favor of removal, something that would almost certainly not happen. As a result, the left will not be able to point to an acquittal as some type of repudiation of the findings by the House.

Additionally, it would allow Republicans to frame the issue as President Trump suffering improper prosecution by Democrats, and could be used as a talking point when discussing Trump’s current legal situations.

Conducting a hearing in this manner will allow the GOP to make the case publicly that Biden is corrupt without having to meet some standard of guilt, whether made up or not. The average person, after having seen the evidence that currently exists against Biden, would be hard pressed to conclude anything other than he is a corrupt liar who used his position in government to both enrich himself and to cover up his crimes.

By reverse-engineering the impeachment process, Republicans can lay out the case against Biden in a low pressure hearing that is cloaked in the mantle of securing justice rather than persecuting a political opponent. It will allow Republicans to achieve all of the things they could hope to in a normal impeachment hearing while allowing them not to take any serious political risk. It’s the perfect way for a party adverse to doing the right thing to do the right thing.

Tim is the author of the book “Financial Freedom for Kids” available on Amazon. He can be reached on Twitter @mister_irony.

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