On Thursday, after Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez deconstructed the through-the-looking-glass nature of the Republican impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, fellow Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz of Florida got his five minutes. Wasting no time, Moskowitz brought some real entertainment to the proceedings.
After Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Republican, told Moskowitz it was his “lucky day” to have this time, Moskowitz replied, “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it’s your lucky day.” Smiling and looking at the underwhelming Republican witnesses, Moskowitz quipped, “What a day we are having here, isn’t it? I mean, listen, as a former director of emergency management, I know a disaster when I see one.”
Kapow. Moskowitz went on, saying you didn’t have to take his word for it, and then mentioned the reaction of conservative strategist and convicted criminal Steve Bannon. Bannon, Moskowitz said, was angry that conservative legal scholar Jonathan Turley was one of the first Republican witnesses, after Turley testified that nothing the Republican Party has uncovered so far rises to the level of impeachment. Moskowitz turned to the Republicans on the committee and said, “Boy, that is awkward. I mean, look, it’s like political impeachment malpractice.”
And Moskowitz was just getting started.
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From there, Moskowitz proceeded with slides. First, he mentioned that Fox News asked Comer if he could make a solid allegation of bribery against Joe Biden, to which Comer responded, “I hope so.” Moskowitz then brought up Sen. Chuck Grassley’s strange admission (on television, no less): “We [Republicans] are not interested in whether the allegations against Vice President Biden are accurate or not.”
After that, Moskowitz really let loose, and it’s worth quoting at length:
We’re all appearing now in the world’s worst-acted TV drama, right? It’s been picked up for a second season. ‘The Real House Republicans of Oversight.’ You know, perhaps the material is so bad due to the writers’ strike. I mean, how many Republicans, Freedom Caucus members, part of the chaos caucus, have said there’s no evidence to impeach Joe Biden?
And again, of course, we know it’s not about the evidence. Why? Here is a list of all of the articles of impeachment that have been filed by my colleagues, some that are on this committee. When was the first article filed? It was filed in January of ‘21, two weeks after Jan. 6th. So before we had a single hearing, before they went through this myriad of fishing, they were filing articles of impeachment.
Professor Turley, you said this doesn’t rise to the level of impeachment and you said they shouldn’t prejudge. Well, here’s a list right here of every single member, many on this committee, prejudging. They’re filing articles of impeachment: COVID, Afghanistan, Hunter Biden. And they’re all one-upping each other in the Donald Trump-friend-Olympics, trying to get invited to the sleepover at Mar-a-Lago. ‘I filed articles of impeachment against Merrick Garland. No, I filed articles of impeachment against Kamala Harris.’ Okay.
It is ridiculous. But this is what this is about. Let me show you. It’s a simple board, right? So all other presidents in the United States, 50% of the impeachments, Donald Trump … Donald Trump has half of the impeachments in American history. But you know what? He’s got 100% of the indictments, 100% of all indictments. Zero for the other presidents. Listen, let me do it another way. I want to channel my inner Tim Russert. So let me go to the board. Right? And I don’t have Florida, but Donald Trump impeachments—oh, how many impeachments we got? How many indictments we got? Four. How many for Biden? Zero, zero.
Donald Trump is right. He’s sick of winning. He’s just winning, running away with it. And that’s why we’re here. We’re here because of math. That’s what this is about. They can’t save Donald Trump. They can’t take away the two impeachments and the four indictments. But they can try to put some numbers on the board for Joe Biden.
But the problem is, when you sling mud, you’ve got to have mud. And they just don’t have anything, Mr. Chairman. So, look, we get it. We know why we’re here. That’s why they say ‘the Biden family,’ ‘the Bidens,’ ‘James Biden,’ Joe Biden’s dog Commander’—but not ‘Joe Biden.’ Never Joe Biden. So when are you going to have the vote on impeachment, Mr. Chairman?
What are you scared of? Call the vote. Come on. If you all think there’s so much evidence, we’re here. Call the vote on impeachment. Impeach him right now! I dare you!
Oh boy, he got a lot with his five minutes.
Enough with the weak leadership and MAGA circus. Sign the petition: Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker!
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