House’s impeachment stunt against President Biden is all about re-electing Trump | Opinion

If you like the idea of electing Donald Trump so he can prosecute his enemies without any evidence of crimes, you’ll love the new impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden launched by last week’s MAGA House vote. It’s an evidence-free act of political retaliation that should be booked as a campaign contribution to Trump.

Even “Fox and Friends” host Steve Doocy turned on the Republicans’ hit job, saying they “haven’t connected the dots,” and have “not been able to provide any concrete evidence.”

This Republican House has the wrong priorities. They won’t pass a budget. They won’t address America’s inflation issues or need for better health care.

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But they will do Donald Trump’s dirty work, trying to smear Biden to help Trump get elected — despite their repeated investigative face-plants.

They called witness Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s business associate, to connect Biden to his son’s business dealings. The effort “spectacularly failed,” in the words of the Los Angeles Times.

They said that Israeli-American citizen Gal Luft, the self-proclaimed whistleblower calling attention to alleged corruption by Hunter Biden, would testify about Biden family benefits obtained via China. Luft was a no-show because he was a fugitive from justice.

In October, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer called a $200,000 payment to President Biden from his brother James part of an “influence peddling scheme.” Fact checkers showed that the check was nothing but the repayment of a two-month loan — and that Comer had done the exact same thing with his brother.

Next Comer claimed that $4,140 in payments from Hunter to his father were nefarious. It turns out they were just reimbursements for a pickup truck that Biden bought for his son’s use.

Texas Republican Rep. Troy Nehls said the quiet part out loud in early December when he admitted that he wants to give the twice-impeached Trump “a little bit of ammo to fire back.” On the day of the House vote, he celebrated it by spilling the beans all over the floor: “Trump 2024, baby!”

This is a dangerous game, and clearly part of Trumpists’ goal to destroy constitutional guardrails on presidential power. Impeachment, once deployed as a partisan tool, loses potency as a constraint because citizens think, “Both sides do it.”

As a new bipartisan report on impeachment shows, however, both sides don’t impeach presidents without real facts. The authors, including a former Republican member of the House and a Republican-appointed former federal judge, conclude that the Biden impeachment is “manifestly unjustified” and “a misuse of power” that violates the 10 core criteria for impeachment.

By contrast, the 2019 impeachment of Trump for abusing power — by threatening to withdraw military aid to Ukraine unless President Volodymyr Zelensky investigated Joe Biden — was based on a “wealth of evidence,” per The New York Times.

In 2021, the House impeached Trump based on “devastating evidence” about his role in January 6 that has since produced a federal prosecution of the former president.

Last week’s vote was a step in the partisan march toward a fact-free impeachment. Only citizens can stop the House GOP corruption of vital constitutional institutions like impeachment. A survey this month showed that 62% of voters in competitive House districts nationally said Congress should not impeach Biden without any evidence.

Republican Congressmen David Valadao, John Duarte, Mike Garcia and Ken Calvert are California representatives occupying “toss-up” seats. Their constituents can help preserve American democracy by calling their offices or using social media to tell their representatives that their vote was wrong and that they must not vote for actual impeachment in the future.

Defeating the impeachment vote that is surely coming will take only three or so House Republicans to vote against it. Californians can help halt this dangerous attempt to give Trump “ammo” to blow up American democracy.

Former U.S. Ambassador Norm Eisen was counsel to the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment and trial of Donald Trump and is a co-author of An Analysis of the Biden Impeachment Inquiry. Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy .