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Live coverage: Republican impeachment inquiry

by Mark Sumner for Daily Kos Liveblogs

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday, Sep. 28, 2023 Thursday, Sep. 28, 2023 at 6:55:03am PDT

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 19: U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (L) (R-CA) and Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) eat ice cream as they attend the Congressional Picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 19, 2023 in Washington, DC. The annual picnic welcomes all members of Congress and their families to the White House to greet the President and spend time on the White House grounds enjoying food, music and games. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) — Barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Ways and Means Chair Rep. Jason Smith eating dreamsicles at a congressional picnic.

Republicans begin their impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden today. Appropriately enough, they’re bringing in three “witnesses” who haven’t witnessed anything. One is accountant Bruce Dubinsky, whose expertise consists of going on Fox News to attack Hunter Biden. Another is a former member of Donald Trump’s transition team, Eileen O’Connor, who served in the Department of Justice two decades ago. The last member of this Republican dream team is, of course, “legal scholar” Jonathan Turley, the attorney who ponied up to defend Donald Trump during his impeachment hearings and the go-to choice when Republicans need support for their most ridiculous theories.

None of these three have any connection to Hunter Biden or President Joe Biden. They have no knowledge of the events, no involvement in any investigation, no special knowledge, and no reason to appear.

So, if nothing else, this is going to be a perfect illustration of just what this “inquiry” is about.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 6:01:06 PM +00:00 · Barbara Morrill

Live coverage of the hearing continues here.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 6:00:05 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Like others today, Lee just isn’t going to play along. Which is making Republicans angry.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:59:12 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Summer Lynn Lee gets interrupted by Comer, who has been the primary interrupter all day. So it seems appropriate that Lee starts off by pointing out that 8,937 people in Comer’s district could lose their paychecks.

Boebert shouts that “Democrats are the party of shutdown. You guys love shutdown.” Because Democrats have shut down the government exactly … never.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:55:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Jake LaTurner returns to playing Six Degrees of Hunter Biden, along with talking about things that happened when Biden was not in any office, or a candidate for any office.

But of course, LaTurner isn’t going to say any of that. Instead he goes to Budinsky to talk about how those bad guys hide behind “code names.”

Again, this is a memo that happened in 2017, and a DOJ investigation that took place entirely under the control of Trump and Barr. So … that is absolutely the best they have.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:51:11 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

We’re now having Republicans enter things into the record so they can call Democrats hypocrites. These are the moments that will make it on Fox News tonight, because everything else has been boring as f-ck.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:46:49 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Maxwell Frost asks Turley a question, spurring Turley to not just do a “I don't recall” but give a “I don’t have any recollection of those 12 days.” Maybe someone should check on Turley.

Frost makes it clear that McCarthy gave in to the hearings on the basis of threats directed his way by Trump.

Frost: “This fake impeachment is based on desperate political calculation, not on any evidence.” When Frost states, accurately, that none of the witnesses have given any evidence, Comer tries to interrupt and says that Turley has “testified several times”—presumably to the inner thoughts of James Madison.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:42:10 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Andy Biggs submits Devon Archer’s testimony. It’s nice how Archer is either a criminal that no one can trust when there’s anything that contradicts the Republican narrative, or the absolute gold standard if they can shape his testimony to support something they want to press.

And then we get an extended dance with Turley, in which he naturally gives Biggs everything he wants. Because when has Turley not?

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:35:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Jimmy Gomez starts off by showing how independent journalists looking into the allegations against Hunter Biden have already shredded many of the claims and compares the 20 companies that have been connected to Hunter Biden’s investment firm—none of which where connected to President Biden—with the 500+ firms that were controlled directly by Donald Trump.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:31:28 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Garcia: What I want to know is why we are not investigating real family corruption.

*picture of Ivanka and Jared displayed* pic.twitter.com/zclcPDJLFq
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 28, 2023

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:30:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Pete Sessions is somehow defending the shutdown by comparing it to a shutdown which had already been averted in 2019. Sessions seems to be suggesting that Joe Biden should have been interviewed by investigators looking into Hunter Biden, even though they had no evidence. O’Conner is once again making claims about which she has absolutely no knowledge.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:25:44 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Robert Garcia recaps that there has still been no evidence put forward against President Biden, that none of the witnesses have any evidence, and that everything keeps falling down to a disproven conspiracy theory. Then he hauls out pictures of Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner—who unlike Hunter Biden, actually worked in the White House—while running through some of Kushner’s greatest hits. He brings up a quote from Comer saying that Kushner “crossed the line of ethics,” but no one is doing anything about it.

Then he brings up a statement from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene showing that she introduced a motion to impeach President Biden on his first day in office and declared, “We will impeach Biden.” That’s followed by other statements from Greene trying to expunge Trump’s impeachment.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:19:16 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Higgins once again talking about how the DOJ under Trump was somehow controlled by Biden. Because Deep State. Deep State, people.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:15:29 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Higgins again engages in the favorite Republican sport: invite Turley to say things about what people 220 years ago were thinking.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:14:19 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

“We see the long arms—but little hands—of Mr. Donald Trump are all over this hearing and this sham impeachment” — Rep. Melanie Stansbury

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:12:18 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Melanie Stansbury opens by thanking Donald Trump for calling this hearing. She points out that Republicans haven’t even bothered to show up for earlier hearings. Because they don’t actually have an interest in evidence, just in providing Trump and themselves with a distraction.

Stansbury show that Trump has called for this hearing and been in direct contact with members who have been briefing him on the hearings.

Stansbury: “Folks, this is not a serious inquiry. This is not a serious hearing. In fact, the witnesses here don’t believe there’s enough evidence to impeach. Their own members don’t even believe there’s enough evidence to impeach. In fact, they refuse to hold a vote on the floor of the House of Representatives because they don’t have enough Republicans who would vote for it. That’s why we’re here today. It’s outrageous. What is this hearing actually about? It’s a campaign strategy. It’s a misuse of official resources. It is this committee, and loyalist of Donald Trump, doing his bidding to bolster his chances of winning back the White House in the next election.”

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:06:41 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Comer gets free time to apologize to the witnesses for Democrats pointing out that they’re not witnesses, and to the American people for having to listen to people questioning their non-evidence.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:05:07 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Gary Palmer is reminded of a lot of movie lines, including, “You can’t handle the truth.” Then he turns to attacking Democrats for demanding that Republicans have actual evidence. Does Palmer actually understand what “truth” means?

Then he asks Turley to repeat what he’s already said a dozen times. So, smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 5:01:47 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Brown: “These falsehoods about President Biden didn’t change the will of the people in November 2020, yet my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are at it again, holding another hearing on these baseless allegations.”

Her delivery is just beautiful. She gave some of her time to Goldman, but please, come back Shontel. I want to hear more.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:59:17 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Shontel Brown doesn’t give a damn about this farce of a hearing, but is concerned about how the hearing is distracting from efforts to actually do something, like fund the government. I like how she just utterly isn’t going to play into this thing at all. Like … at all.

Brown: “Rather than work with Democrats to get us out of the mess they created, Republicans are tripping over themselves to distract and deflect the American people with this shameful show. The Department of Justice and the FBI spent five, five long years, looking into these Republican conspiracy theories and debunked them. Repeatedly.”

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:55:48 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Goldman tries to enter an article into the record making it clear that the 1023 form that Turley was just using as the basis of his long tirade has already admitted that it was nonsense. This time Jordan has learned enough to just let it go on the record without a screaming match.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:52:52 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

I want a rule that the next person to bring up Alexander Hamilton has to rap their answer. Mr. Chairman, can we get a vote?

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:51:40 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Glenn Grothman says … mumble … really serious … mumble … Menendez … mumble … Hunter Biden … mumble. Finally gets around to giving Turley an invitation to free-form bloviate.

Turley insists that you have to begin with the assumption that Hunter Biden was a corrupt influence peddler. Because it makes it so much easier to go to the next step if you skip over having to prove that part.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:48:15 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Ocasio-Cortez makes clear the fake message was one of those that was earlier put up by Rep. Donalds. “This is an embarrassment.”

Republicans are not embarrassed. They don’t do that.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:46:24 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez runs through the Republican witnesses, asking them all the same question: “Have you, in your testimony today, presented any firsthand testimony of crimes committed by the President of the United States?”

All of them answered, “No.”

Ocasio-Cortez then points out that the only people in the room under oath are the witnesses, because the speech and debate clause lets the members of Congress lie like … fill in your own appropriate term.

She then draws special attention to the supposed text message presented earlier, which was a fake. She pulls out the actual message, and then explains again that Congress members can lie like a … rug. Let’s just go with rug.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:41:38 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Foxx talks with O’Conner, who tells about a report that she thinks exists, with charges that she thinks were recommended. But they’re both just speculating.

Again, we’re being asked to believe that a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney and an investigation that was conducted for two years under William Barr and Donald Trump was controlled by Joe Biden.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:37:53 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Virginia Foxx tries to get Republicans back on track by just giving O’Conner the floor to talk about “common knowledge” of how criminals do things. Because why bother to have anything even related to Joe Biden, or Hunter Biden, when you can simply talk about “a typical special agent report.”

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:35:14 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Raskin tries again to get Jordan to address the fact that the whole Burisma claim is a fraud, and that they already have a letter from Parnas admitting that it’s a “wild goose chase.” But Jordan isn’t responding and Comer keeps interrupting by just saying “the China money.”

On we go.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:32:24 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Mfume: “Would you say that Republicans have made an unprecedented overreach of congressional power?”

Gerhardt: “It strikes me that it is.”

Mfume asks a questions about the extreme MAGA Republicans, and says he can point them out to Gerhardt. Rep Clay Higgins asks for Mfume to point them out.

Mfume asks, “Why in the hell of are we playing this game?” rather than dealing with the pending government shutdown.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:28:38 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Mfume holds up a sign that says, “Where is Rudy?”

Mfume: “That’s how we got here, ladies and gentlemen. And this committee is afraid to bring him here and put him on the record. Shame!”

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:27:03 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Kweisi Mfume points out that Rudy Giuliani also took money from the same company that McClain said was corrupt. Mfume asks again that Giuliani be called as a witness. Republicans move again to table that request.

And once again we’re going to hold a vote, where Republicans are going to vote right down the line to prevent Giuliani from appearing to testify about the conspiracy theory for which he was the principal author.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:23:26 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Lisa McClain says that the analogy for Hunter Biden should be that he was a hitman working on Joe Biden’s orders. Because, sure, that makes sense.

McClain is playing Six Degrees of Hunter Biden. Also, she believes in “the Biden family account.” Which is not a thing. We’ve now added Romania to the list of places where Biden is doing … something, something.

McClain actually ran through all her time, but Jordan generously gave her more.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:16:47 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Ro Khanna goes back to Jonathan Turley to emphasize the importance of holding a vote before beginning an inquiry. Which would be less fun had Mace not just started her time declaring that she didn’t want to hear about this any more. There you go, Nancy.

Khanna is doing a good job of using one of the Republicans’ own witnesses against them.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:12:23 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Nancy Mace is clearly uninterested in evidence, but is interested in putting on a performance. You have to hand it tor her. Her dramatic readings of text messages and snarky delivery is perfectly pitched.

“Mean Girls 2” casting director, call her!

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:08:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Andy Biggs argues to defend O’Conner and Turley against having their own quotes read into evidence.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:06:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Krishnamoorthi turns to O’Conner, showing how her LinkedIn account not only promotes conspiracy theories against immigrants, but supported the appointment of alternative electors for Trump in 2020.

Krishnamoorthi shows that Turley has “crusaded” for polygamy. Gets Turley to scramble to defend on how he was was not actually supporting pedophilia.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:04:01 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi goes to Turley. “Not anywhere in Hunter Biden’s investigation is there any allegation of Joe Biden doing anything wrong, right?”

Turley: “That’s correct”

Krishnamoorthi: “Not a parking ticket, not a moving violation, not a library fine … In fact, you said, the current record does not establish any crime, much less an impeachable offense.”

Krishnamoorthi again runs through the lengthy list of Republicans willing to debunk the Republicans’ own impeachment inquiry.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 4:00:46 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Goldman finally gets to enter the page of Devon Archer’s testimony into the record. That testimony completely contradicts Jordan and others’ characterization of what Archer said, but … moving on.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:59:05 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Connolly: "Shouldn't we concerned about all those Biden towers all over the world where foreign partnerships were formed and influence was used here in the US? I've seen these towers in Indonesia, in the Philippines, in Turkey. I've even seen one in Chicago." pic.twitter.com/U10K2K5JSQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 28, 2023

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:58:17 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Byron Donalds invites Dubinsky to speculate over the business connections of Hunter Biden. Then Donalds talks about Devon Archer and his testimony—ignoring the fact that it’s Archer’s testimony that Goldman keeps trying to put on the record.

Also, a text message where Hunter Biden says he wants to protect his father is clearly criminal.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:55:09 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jordan has just decided he doesn’t even have to recognize points of order.

Goldman: “The rules require ...”

Jordan: “No!”

Jordan then tells Democrats to be quiet and they’ll hear evidence. Goldman tries to point out that he wants to introduce evidence. Jordan pouts.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:51:45 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Gerry Connolly flips the names of Hunter Biden and Jared Kushner, and President Biden and Donald Trump and asks a series of questions about whether they should be concerned.

Connolly: “I just think that one of the reasons we’re here is because somebody has been indicted in four different locales with four different sets of concerns, 81, or is it 91 counts?”

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:47:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Daniel Goldman attempts to introduce a motion showing that what Jordan claimed earlier about the testimony of one of Hunter Biden’s business partners was a complete fabrication. Jordan, who has decided there are no rules but his, just cuts it off and announces that the effort takes time away from Rep. Gerry Connolly. Because why not?

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:43:54 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Lynch just demolished one of the GOP witnesses pic.twitter.com/tNPsmZZv6N
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 28, 2023

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:42:44 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Mike Turner spends most of his time praising the wisdom of Jonathan Turley. And again, we’re going down the road to Burisma.

Turner brings up the fact that the attorney general has a special prosecutor looking into classified materials that Biden already turned over and strings a new conspiracy theory that Hunter Biden was selling classified info. So that’s at least a fun new unsupported line of BS.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:37:55 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Lynch says he’s surprised that he walked into this meeting with supposed witnesses and didn’t find Rudy Giuliani, the one person who can actually answer questions about how the Burisma story started.

Gerhardt agrees that it “seems obvious” Giuliani should be there.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:36:24 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Stephen Lynch points out that not one of the witnesses Republicans brought have any knowledge of any wrongdoing by President Biden, any evidence about Hunter Biden, or anything really to contribute to this processes.

Lynch points out that O’Conner’s article, “You’d go to prison for what Biden did”, was actually “You’d go to prison for what Hunter Biden did.” O’Conner says she left out the “Hunter” because she was “cutting down words to stay inside my five minutes.”

A pretty important word, says Lynch.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:32:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jordan and Turley tag-teaming the idea that you don’t need any evidence to do an impeachment inquiry, and boy are they spending a lot of time defending just sitting here today.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:29:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jordan jumps fully into the Burisma claims as the basis of this investigation. Which is absolutely full-on perfect, since that’s has been so roundly disproven since 2019.

Jordan is back in front of the cameras screaming. Because being louder makes things more important.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:27:38 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Norton throws it back to Raskin so he can ask Gerhardt about how Republicans aren't concerned about the $2 billion pocketed by Jared Kushner.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:25:06 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton goes back to Gerhardt, who emphasizes that there is no credible evidence against President Biden, and that impeachment without evidence doesn’t just trivialize impeachment, but “trivializes the Constitution and runs roughshod over the rule of law.”

Note that it is Democrats who are actually asking for witnesses to the Burisma deal to be called, while Republicans are quickly shutting down that effort. Because Republicans want to use the claims against President Biden without any threat of the truth getting in the way.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:21:34 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Smith gets his turn to talk about the “700 pages of documents” from his fantastic press conference.

He asks O’Conner a question about “Biden family” and “the family,” apparently a thing that is capable of violating campaign laws.

This thing is so scripted that O’Conner is thrown off because she admits that she thought Smith was going to ask her a different question about a different part of the conspiracy theory. O’Conner also points to Dubinsky as someone who can fill Smith in on how some part of this “family” worked. Because it’s an ensemble piece.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:16:34 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Raskin asks Gerhardt about whether any impeachment inquiry has been launched without a vote of the full House. Nope. How about impeachment inquiries without evidence of a crime? Nope. Gerhardt agrees with Raskin that hearing from Giuliani and Parnas is important.

Raskin asks Gerhardt for a theory that Trump didn’t deserve to be impeached for Jan. 6, but Biden does deserve to be impeached for … whatever. Gerhardt says he cannot.

Raskin moves to enter a letter from Parnas into the record.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:11:50 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Jordan starts off with the $250,000 that was sent to Hunter Biden by wire which used Joe Biden’s home address which was insta-debunked after Republicans tried to spring this yesterday.

So, Jordan is now asking Dubinsky about how this matches his experience of fraudsters, which is exactly why Dubinsky is there. So that every theory that Jordan, Comer, or Smith want to posit can be supported.

Then Jordan turns to Turley, who has handily prepared for Republicans a list of crimes they might consider using to impeach President Biden, since they don’t have anything. This whole back and forth with Turley is fantastic, because it amounts to Turley flat-out advising the Republicans on how to conduct their case.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:06:18 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And lord help us, now we have to get through all the questions from members. So here we go ...

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 3:05:54 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Professor Michael Gerhardt starts off warning against the trivializing of impeachment inquiries, and quoting Alexander Hamilton from The Federalist Papers.

Gerhardt goes back through the evidence that Jordan gave, simplifies it, and shows where it not only doesn’t come close to justifying impeachment, but doesn’t show that President Biden did anything wrong. Most importantly, Gerhardt points out that all the things they are doing—criticizing the actions of prosecutors, talking about whether Hunter Biden’s deal was proper—are outside of the functions of the Committee.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:59:42 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Dubinsky just said that shell companies “more often than not” are used for illicit purposes.

Someone might want to get in touch with the guy who has over 500 of those shell companies. (Hint: That’s Donald Trump)

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:58:34 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Bruce Dubinsky is here to tell us he knows all about fraudsters, fraud, and how fraudsters move their money around. His whole testimony seems to boil down to saying, “Where there’s smoke there’s fire,” except he can’t say anything about whether there’s any actual fire. Or smoke.

Expect all his testimony to be about his “experience with fraudsters.” Republicans are going to use him to paint a picture of Joe Biden’s family moving money around through shell companies. Evidence be damned,

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:55:51 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Eileen O’Conner says she was “invited to share her comments on Hunter Biden as a private citizen.” That’s—interesting. And then she moves directly to acting as a proxy for IRS “whistleblowers” Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.

Then she talks about her Wall Street Journal editorial titled, “Throw Hunter Biden’s plea deal in the trash” And her second editorial titled, “You’d go to prison for what Biden did.” If you wondered why she’s there, now you know.

O’Conner goes on to extend a new conspiracy theory that the IRS and DOJ were somehow making a deal with Hunter Biden to try and cut off Shapley. Everything she said absolutely contradicts Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss. But again, no one is bothering to hear from people who were really involved.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:48:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Turley starts off the affair by talking about how he believes the House has “passed the threshold” for the inquiry. Then goes on to admit that everything is simply an allegation.

For what it’s worth, I allege that Turley is a hack. Can we impeach him?

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:44:56 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Now Jordan introduces the witnesses. Oddly enough, their appearances on Fox News and their connections to Trump have gone unmentioned.

In addition to the Republican witnesses, Democrats have called law professor Michael Gerhardt.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:40:30 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

After some wrangling, Jordan goes through the motion of tabling Raskin’s call for witnesses who are actual witnesses. It is, of course, promptly blocked along partisan lines.

Because the last thing Republicans want in this hearing is someone who actually knows something about the claims they are making.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:36:20 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Raskin insists that Rudy Giuliani and his convicted partner in crime Lev Parnas be called as witnesses, asks for a vote. Jordan just refuses to do it.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:34:35 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Raskin has spent the last 10 minutes just eating this hearing alive.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:31:57 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Raskin once again goes through the steps showing that the firing of Shokin was part of a fight against corruption in Ukraine that was backed by multiple governments and by Republicans in the U.S. Senate. It wasn’t until years after the event that the whole “Biden did it to help Burisma” scheme was concocted by Giuliani and Trump.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:28:54 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

“If the Republicans had a smoking gun, or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today, but they’ve got nothing on Joe Biden. All they can do is return to the thoroughly demolished lie that Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump launched five years ago — the Burisma conspiracy theory.” — Rep. Jamie Raskin

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:28:27 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Raskin making it clear that if they had to put this farce up for a vote, Jordan, Comer, and Smith don’t have the votes to get this inquiry started. It’s only because Rep. Kevin McCarthy bypassed all the rules he had thumped during Trump’s impeachment.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:23:38 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Raskin starts with a series of quotes from Republicans that are genuinely fun. Also, Raskin got in a quote from “Alfred Pennyworth in the Dark Knight,” which is a pretty good illustration of just where this hearing is taking place.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:19:44 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. Jamie Raskin points out that since this whole farce didn’t get a vote in the House, all the attacks on President Biden are a violation of House rules. But Jordan just says that’s okay, Biden can be smeared at will.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:17:39 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And now we get Rep. Jim Jordan. How also jumps right to the Ukraine false claims.

This whole thing about the prosecutor in Ukraine, Viktor Shokin, has been debunked over, and over, and over. Really, it’s just perfect that this is already turning out to be the heart of this “inquiry.”

The second part of this is going to be how Joe Biden somehow controlled the Department of Justice all through the Trump administration. Which is just high fantasy.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:12:54 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

And Rep. Jason Smith jumps right into the repeatedly debunked claims about Joe Biden in Ukraine. Because of course they’re going to go there.

UPDATE: Thursday, Sep 28, 2023 · 2:09:09 PM +00:00 · Mark Sumner

Rep. James Comer starts right off claiming to have a “mountain” of evidence and treating every claim as if it is an established fact. It’s always easier to conduct a trial if you don’t have to prove anything. Maybe they’ll just skip right to the end.

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