6 Takes on the Biden Impeachment Inquiry

The US faces a third possible impeachment of a president in less than four years. GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, launched Tuesday, comes in response to "allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption." Some onlookers agree with the reasoning, claiming then-Vice President Biden's role in his son Hunter's business ventures was "clearly corrupt." Others, however, say the inquiry is completely unjustified and another way in which McCarthy is catering to the far-right members of his party. More:

• 'No clue': In what's written as a mock voicemail message left by McCarthy, Rex Huppke at USA Today ridicules the "evidence-free impeachment inquiry" and directs those looking for "a list of the evidence we've found linking President Biden to his son Hunter Biden's business dealings, or a list of any evidence that justifies our impeachment inquiry" to "please call back later, as that list does not currently exist outside the minds of our party's far-right flank." He adds "all help is welcome because, frankly, we have absolutely no clue what we're doing."
• 'Clearly corrupt': There's already enough evidence to justify Biden's impeachment, writes Jonathan Tobin, editor in chief of the Jewish News Syndicate, via Newsweek, citing Biden's threat to withhold aid from Ukraine's government unless it fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden to sit on its board. (US allies had made the same demand, alleging the prosecutor was corrupt.) "Biden knowingly took on responsibilities with respect to dealing with Ukraine as well as China that created a conflict of interest with his son's grifting," which is "clearly corrupt," he adds.

• 'No brainer': The inquiry is justified as investigations by the House GOP have "proven" Biden "broke bread with Hunter's clients, jumped on calls with them, even wrote at least one college recommendation," according to the New York Post editorial board. It's also clear that Biden "blackmailed" Ukraine's government, the board claims. Of course, "details need to be pinned down in all that," it adds, but it calls the impeachment inquiry "a no brainer" needed to establish "where all the millions funneled through Hunter's dozens of shell companies came from and went to."
• 'Evidence of influence-peddling': It's "worth investigating" $20 million in alleged payments to "Biden family members and associates via shell companies" following "evidence of influence-peddling," writes the Wall Street Journal editorial board. But there is not yet "evidence of genuine corruption" by President Biden and "Congress is in danger of turning the serious sanction of impeachment into the new censure—a statement of rebuke rather than a threat of removal."

• 'The Bidens' grift': There are "reams of credible evidence" that Vice President Biden "participated in schemes that brought his family as much as $20 million," writes New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin. But he claims the same Justice Department that was "caught covering up the crimes of Hunter Biden, with the prosecutor on the case prepared to let him walk without charges" is the same one that has ignored an informant's claim that Joe and Hunter Biden each received a $5 million bribe from Burisma's owner. While "the public is catching on to the Bidens' grift," an impeachment inquiry "is the only way the American public will ever get the full truth," he writes.
• 'Unjustified': The inquiry is yet another way in which McCarthy is showing himself to be "a stooge of the far right," accommodating "the extremists in his conference who hold his speakership hostage," according to the Los Angeles Times editorial board. It notes McCarthy launched the "unjustified" inquiry without securing a vote by the full House—something he criticized Nancy Pelosi for doing in 2019, though a floor vote was eventually held—because he might well have lost the vote. "It's legitimate for Congress to ask whether Hunter Biden received unfair treatment, but nothing about the prosecution of Hunter Biden justifies the drastic step of an impeachment inquiry about his father," the board adds.

(More Biden impeachment stories.)