President Joe Biden‘s reelection campaign lambasted the GOP-led House impeachment inquiry as a “sham” and a tool to boost former President Donald Trump‘s 2024 bid in a new memo released on Tuesday.
“The only, single fact in this entire sham impeachment exercise is that it’s a nakedly transparent ploy by House MAGA Republicans to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” Michael Tyler, a Biden campaign communications director, wrote.
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The House is preparing to vote to authorize an impeachment inquiry on Wednesday as the White House has increased pressure to portray the investigation as lacking in evidence and tie centrist or swing-state Republicans to hard-line conservatives.
Tyler pointed to Trump’s comments last week during a town hall with Fox News’s Sean Hannity in which the ex-president said he wouldn’t rule as a dictator if reelected “except for day one.”
“Prior to those comments, Speaker Johnson was privately telling his colleagues there was insufficient evidence to advance impeachment,” Tyler said. “What changed? The only branch of government MAGA Republicans control is following through on Donald Trump’s promise to use the levers of government to enact political retribution on his enemies. You know, like the followers of a dictator.”
The memo also referenced Trump ally Rep. Troy Nehls’s (R-TX) comments earlier this month in which he said the impeachment would give the twice-impeached former president “a little bit of ammo to fire back.”
Tyler later attacked House Speaker Mike Johnson, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for acting on behalf of Trump’s orders. In late August, Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Republicans in Congress should “either IMPEACH the bum, or fade into OBLIVION” about Biden.
“Just like his predecessor, Mike Johnson is firmly in Donald Trump’s pocket and taking his marching orders from him and Marjorie Taylor Greene,” he wrote. “It’s no small coincidence Johnson did a complete about-face and announced his plans to bring an impeachment vote days after he endorsed Trump and flew down to Mar-a-Lago to meet privately with the former president.”
Greene was one of the first Republicans to push for an inquiry when she said she would introduce articles for impeachment on Jan 21, 2021, just one after Biden was inaugurated.
On January 21, 2021, I’ll be filing Articles of Impeachment against Joe Biden for abuse of power.#ImpeachBiden #QuidProJoe#BidenCrimeFamilly
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) January 14, 2021
Tyler concluded his memo by slamming Republicans for failing to deliver on priorities that were important to the public. “Instead of focusing on the important issues that really matter to Americans’ everyday lives, like lowering costs, creating new jobs, strengthening health care, or tackling gun violence, extreme MAGA Republicans have turned the House of Representatives into an arm of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign,” he wrote.
Yet, in an op-ed for USA Today on Tuesday, Johnson explained why Republicans were moving forward with an impeachment vote and how it would foster trust with a public weary of Congress.
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“The House has a full plate of pressing issues, and we do not take this inquiry lightly. Our southern border is wide open, American families are struggling to make ends meet and a perception of American weakness has thrust the world into a state of chaos,” the speaker wrote. “Yet at this juncture, the evidence mounting against President Biden cannot be ignored, and the pushback from the White House and others must be addressed.”
Johnson cited evidence of Biden family members allegedly receiving $15 million from foreign companies and nationals, at least 22 examples of Biden meeting with the foreign business associates of his son, Hunter Biden, and an interim report from investigators showing the Justice Department allegedly gave preferential treatment to the president’s son.
