September 28, 2023

“Clown Show”: The GOP Describes Its Own Impeachment Process

Even Republicans have criticized the attempt to get rid of President Joe Biden.

Mandel Ngan/Getty

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“New Low.” “Pathetic.” “Clown show.” On Thursday, during the impeachment inquiry hearing for President Joe Biden concocted by the GOP amid a potential government shutdown, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) used Republican’s own words against them.

The nation is less than three days away from a potentially devastating government shutdown, with millions of federal workers’ paychecks hanging in the balance. Still, a group of far-right members of Congress are preoccupied with an attempt to impeach President Joe Biden on unsubstantiated claims that he benefitted from the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. 

Joining several other Democrats calling out the GOP during the hearing, Raskin’s team printed out quotes from Republicans denouncing the push to impeach Biden. “So let’s get it straight,” said Raskin during the hearing. “We’re 62 hours away from shutting down the government of the USA, and Republicans are launching an impeachment drive based on a long debunked and discredited lie.”   

Currently, Congress has until Saturday at midnight to pass a short-term spending bill or approximately 4 million federal employees will either be furloughed or forced to work without pay until legislators reach an agreement, according to CNN. 

Since 2022, many far-right Republicans, led by Rep. Jim Comer (R-Ky.), have spearheaded an effort to impeach Biden under the suspicion that he engaged in illicit financial activity with his scandal-ridden son, Hunter. However, as the media and several Democrats pointed out today, the evidence the GOP has of any wrongdoing on the president’s part is scarce. As my colleague, David Corn wrote:

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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