This week, the Republicans in the House made the unprecedented and constitutionally dubious decision to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden without a single shred of evidence. While the politics of impeachment are likely to blow up in the Republicans’ faces, this unpredictable situation is not without pitfalls for Biden and the Democrats. One of those pitfalls involves the horse-race obsessed political media and dystopic information environment flooded with disinformation and clickbait. The White House is so concerned about how news of the impeachment inquiry will reach the public that on Tuesday they sent a letter to news organizations urging them to not to treat this inquiry as normal. As Ian Sams, Special Assistant the Spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office wrote:

Reporting that solely focuses on process rather than substance is woefully inadequate when it comes to something as historically grave as impeachment.

It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies. When even House Republican members are admitting that there is simply no evidence that Joe Biden did anything wrong, much less impeachable, that should set off alarm bells for news organizations.

The White House’s concerns are warranted. Less than 24 hours after McCarthy’s announcement, social media is being flooded with enough disinformation and overly credulous reporting to make people who haven’t been following the story think that Biden is somehow guilty of something. I wanted to provide some information and context to help Message Box readers understand this madness and talk to your friends and family who may encounter the bad info floating out there.

I hope to make these sorts of information guides a regular feature. If you find it helpful, please share it with your network.

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1. There is No Evidence; Just Ask Republicans

During the announcement of the inquiry and in subsequent interviews, Speaker McCarthy could not point to a piece of evidence connecting President Biden to his son’s business dealings. There are plenty of sketchy people making unfounded allegations, but no evidence. This lack of evidence comes after a five-year Justice Department investigation by a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney and nearly a year of scrutiny from multiple Republican House Committees.

• Republican Rep. Don Bacon: “I think before we move on to [an] impeachment inquiry, we should... there should be a direct link to the president in some evidence. We should have some clear evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor, not just assuming there may be one. I think we need to have more concrete evidence to go down that path.”

• Republican Rep. French Hill: [House Republicans] have not “even remotely completed their work on the kind of detailed investigations and quality work” needed to proceed to an impeachment.

• Rep. Ken Buck: “I don’t think that evidence has been presented” connecting President Biden to wrongdoing and “I’m not convinced that that evidence exists.”

• Rep. Dave Joyce: “Not seeing facts or evidence” that would merit an impeachment inquiry.

• Republican Rep. Dusty Johnson: “There is a constitutional and legal test that you have to meet with evidence” when it comes to impeachment and he has “not seen that evidence.”

2. This is an Illegitimate Inquiry — According to Kevin McCarthy

Back in 2019, Kevin McCarthy was very mad that then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi began the impeachment inquiry without a vote of the full House (a few weeks later, the House voted). McCarthy and the Trump White House declared that an impeachment inquiry without a vote was illegitimate.

Image via Axios

And when has McCarthy scheduled the vote to authorize the impeachment inquiry?

Never.

The Speaker has nowhere near the votes to authorize an impeachment inquiry so he is proceeding forward with what he himself has called an illegitimate and illegal process.

Here’s a very good video put out by Rep. Eric Swall comparing what McCarthy said in 2019 with his rhetoric this week about the need for Congress to authorize an impeachment inquiry.

3. This is an Illegitimate Inquiry — According to Trump’s Lawyers

In January 2020, the Trump Department of Justice even issued a legal opinion declaring that if the full House does not authorize an impeachment inquiry, that inquiry is invalid and need not be complied with. According to the memo written by Steven Engel, the then-head of the Office of Legal Counsel:

[W]e conclude that the House must expressly authorize a committee to conduct an impeachment investigation and to use compulsory process in that investigation before the committee may compel the production of documents or testimony… The House had not authorized such an investigation in connection with the impeachment-related subpoenas issued before October 31, 2019, and the subpoenas therefore had no compulsory effect.

Office of Legal Counsel opinions represent the official legal opinion of the federal government. The Trump-era opinion has not been rescinded and is likely to make an appearance in the inevitable fights over documents and witnesses.

4. This Impeachment is a Trump-Directed Plan to Hurt Biden

McCarthy’s decision to launch an impeachment inquiry is being portrayed in the media as a last-ditch effort by the Speaker to prevent an insurrection from the Freedom Caucus. That is definitely part of the story, but this impeachment inquiry is really a taxpayer-funded effort to help elect Donald Trump.

The former President has been pushing House Republicans publicly and privately to launch such an inquiry. According to the New York Times:

Over the past several months, Mr. Trump has kept a close watch on House Republicans’ momentum toward impeaching Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump has talked regularly by phone with members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and other congressional Republicans who pushed for impeachment, according to a person close to Mr. Trump who was not authorized to publicly discuss the conversations.

And Marjorie Taylor Greene, one the main advocates for impeachment, reportedly told Trump that she wanted impeachment “long and excruciatingly painful for Joe Biden.”

The most likely scenario is that impeachment is a political loser for Republicans, but that is not a given. Trump is not wrong to want such an inquiry. He wants to re-run his highly effective 2016 strategy: paint his opponent as “crooked.” The goal isn’t to make Biden seem as corrupt as Trump, just corrupt enough to convince voters they are both crooked and, therefore, stay home.

It worked before and could work again if each and every one of us doesn’t push back.

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