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Shutdown Politics and Sham Impeachments

Jim Swift

Sep 25

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DENNIS AFTERGUT: Shutdown Politics: What Trump Wants, Who Gets Blamed.

(Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

THE IMPENDING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN is déjà vu all over again—not only because Republicans are yet again stopping federal government operations, but also because Donald Trump is once more wreaking havoc on the country to serve his own interests.
He did it catastrophically after the 2020 election, culminating in the insurrection of January 6th. He’s doing it again with the shutdown.

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KIMBERLY WEHLE: Kevin McCarthy’s Sham Impeachment.

ON SEPTEMBER 12, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters, “I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden” regarding “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption,” as well as the president’s purported “knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings.” Citing zero evidence of specific wrongdoing by Joe Biden or his son, Hunter Biden, McCarthy emphasized that “an impeachment inquiry is the ability to get the information to answer the questions. That’s all we’re doing.”
Setting aside the lack of facts, McCarthy’s announcement was a political snoozer for the simple reason that Americans are cynical of, and exhausted by, impeachment talk. After two failed impeachment trials of former President Donald Trump (the first for asking Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden, the second for inciting the January 6th insurrection), which were preceded two decades earlier by the failed impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton (for lying under oath about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky), we all know that the Constitution’s impeachment clause has become meaningless as a check on abuses of presidential power.

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🚨OVERTIME🚨

Happy Monday! And if you’re observing Yom Kippur, Shanah Tovah. I hope you had a restful weekend! If we win Powerball, I nominate this as the new Bulwark Wisconsin retreat. Don’t forget to order your free COVID tests!

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Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.

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