(Ken Silva, Headline USA) On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee is set to hold a hearing on “the basis for an impeachment inquiry of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.”
The hearing is being touted by conservative establishment media as a red-letter day for Republicans, and as a sign that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is living up to the promises he made to secure power at the beginning of the year.
But according to Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the impeachment hearing is a total sham.
“I don’t believe we’re endeavoring upon a legitimate impeachment of Joe Biden,” Gaetz told political kingmaker Steve Bannon on Tuesday, during an event promoting his colleague Rep. Matt Rosendale’s apparently impending candidacy for Senate.
“Kevin McCarthy didn’t even have enough votes to launch an impeachment inquiry, and you’re telling me he’s somehow going to get the votes for impeachment? I think McCarthy is using the specter of impeachment to subjugate the threat to his power as an impeachment impediment,” he said.
“The game you’re watching is not really the game being played,” he added.
Gaetz noted that the recent House Oversight investigation of the Biden family receiving payments from foreign nationals should be enough to impeach Biden.
Gaetz was referencing the Oversight Committee’s findings that more than 20 companies, 12 banks and nine Biden relatives were used in an alleged complex money-laundering scheme to influence U.S. policy. But McCarthy won’t even subpoena Hunter Biden over the matter, Gaetz said.
“The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act says money paid to people’s children constitutes a corrupt act,” Gaetz said. “I think there’s a lot of good law year that would support our theory of the case that when Joe Biden’s granddaughter’s getting paid, that’s exactly how you bribe a politicians in his 70s.”
Gaetz’s comments come with a federal government shutdown looming. His comments also come amidst his heated dispute with McCarthy and other establishment Republicans over federal spending.
Gaetz has argued for a vote on single-issue legislation as opposed to one omnibus bill to fund the entire federal government. His argument is that each bill should be debated and voted on separately.
Gaetz defended his position on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with host Maria Bartiromo.
Bartiromo initially accused Gaetz of being an obstructionist, but later said that Gaetz convinced her of the merits of his position.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
