Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is speaking out forcefully against the impeachment inquiry that House Republicans are pursuing that targets President Joe Biden, though with House members already departed for the holidays, they’re not going to be making much progress in the immediate future. However, the House’s GOP majority recently approved on the floor the formal establishment of a framework for the (already unfolding) investigation to continue. They’re clearly determined here.
“Before launching a formal impeachment inquiry, we waited until the evidence was sufficient to justify such a serious step. This GOP inquiry is an impeachment with a target, but no high crime in sight. And the only misdemeanor, belongs to those who initiated it,” Schiff alleged on X, formerly Twitter. He is referring to a past impeachment push from Democrats against Donald Trump when the latter was still in office. This time around, Republicans are searching for evidence that could connect the current president to allegedly corrupt business dealings that involved family members of his — and despite moving forward to formalize their inquiry, they’ve yet to find something substantially supportive.
Schiff’s reference to “misdemeanors” hearkens to the Constitutional rules surrounding impeachment, which outline cases in which a targeted official has committed “high crimes” or “misdemeanors.” In other words, the California Democrat is suggesting that House Republicans are the ones who’ve fallen short of the expectations and obligations of their roles.
Biden responded in prepared remarks to House Republicans having recently moved forward with formalizing their impeachment push, criticizing the GOP members in the chamber for, in his words, not actually “doing anything” to advance the real-world standing of Americans. “Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Biden said. “Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”
