With an impeachment effort against Secretary of State Alejandro Mayorkas proving successful, Republicans are eager to impeach President Joe Biden (D). However, the road could be a difficult one, and Democrats are sharing their disdain for the move. After Hunter Biden testified behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz (R) was appalled, saying that Biden brought an "illusory value' to the Burisma Board.
Speaking to reporters after the closed door hearing, Rep. Gaetz shared that "Hunter Biden told us that he joined the Burisma board to counter Russian aggression. I hadn't heard that one before. Thank goodness we had Biden on the Burisma board because that was central to his strategy to stand up to Vladimir Putin."
Hunter Biden did not plead the fifth during the questioning, and when asked if he had been questioned over the value that he brought to the Burisma board or any other board he was a member of, Rep. Gaetz shared that House Republicans had pursued an answer.
"There is an illusory value. it is a mirage to believe that Hunter Biden was engaged in international business. This was a bribe masquerading as an international business transaction. nothing more, nothing less."
"I believe that you can actually bribe someone by paying their family members. I don't get this construct that unless Joe Biden himself received cash, that he somehow wasn't involved in the bribery operation," Rep. Gaetz added.
In a press conference after the hearing, Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D) accused Republicans of putting the U.S. in "danger" by pursuing an impeachment of the president.
“They have done nothing more than lie to the American people, over and over and over, and they don’t care. And it’s because the American people, for whatever reason, are not sick and tired of being sick and tired,” Rep. Crockett said.
The Texas Democrat alluded to the impeachment inquiry largely being based on information that was provided by FBI informant Alexander Smirnov. However, Smirnov was recently indicted and accused of providing the FBI with false information about the president and his son during the 2020 presidential election.
Rep. Crockett argues that Republicans are just looking for “a spectacle and the spectacle right now is putting us in a sense of danger – not just in this county but in this world. It is putting our allies in danger because right now what they’re doing is peddling Russian lies. Basically, the Republicans have become synonymous for Russians at this point.”
Last year, when Republicans introduced a formal impeachment inquiry, Rep. Crockett pushed back against the effort, expressing that the inquiry only shows "a president who loves his son even through his imperfections."
