Kevin McCarthy says to trust impeachment inquiry. Then he must respect Trump indictments | Opinion

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is asking Americans to believe in the righteous cause of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

This despite having no concrete evidence the president has done anything amounting to treason, high crimes or misdemeanors.

McCarthy, the Republican from Bakersfield who now represents much of the San Joaquin Valley, wants citizens to trust him and his party. But he won’t do the same when it comes to indictments of former President Trump.

This despite the 91 felony counts faced by Trump in four separate criminal cases filed against Trump in New York, Georgia and before federal prosecutors.

Mr. Speaker, the contradiction between what you preach and what you reject is obviously political, and you once promised to not play politics with the solemn act of impeaching a president.

McCarthy disparages federal cases

To date, McCarthy has shown no support for the Justice Department in its handling of its Trump indictments, nor the cases brought by district attorneys in New York and Georgia.

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Instead, McCarthy has disparaged those prosecutions as “weaponized,” and characterized them as witch hunts. He has repeatedly claimed on social media and numerous interviews on conservative Fox News that two tiers of justice exist — one that handles President Biden and his family with kid gloves, the other than ruthlessly chases Trump.

In an interview on Fox last month, McCarthy called the Georgia case a “desperate sham” brought by a prosecutor with ambitions for higher office.

Nevermind the overwhelming circumstantial evidence of a pressure campaign Trump waged against Georgia’s secretary of state and other officials to gin up more votes for him following the 2020 presidential election. Biden captured the state, becoming the first Democrat to do so in nearly 30 years.

The audio recording of Trump pushing Brad Raffensperger to “find votes” has been widely disseminated.

“So look, all I want to do is this, I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state,” Trump tells Raffensperger.

“Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong,” said Raffensperger, a Republican, in response to debunked conspiracy theories Trump repeated to Raffensperger in a leaked recording of their early 2021 conversation that is one of the most damning pieces of information against Trump in the Georgia case.

Trump did not win Georgia, and now he is charged with operating a criminal enterprise to try to stay in power.

While Trump awaits his day in court, the recording makes clear that the Georgia case is far from a sham indictment.

Then there are the indictments over Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and the top-secret and confidential documents found at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home in Florida.

With the riot, Trump is charged with trying to overturn the 2020 election. With Mar-a-Lago, he is charged with obstruction and mishandling presidential records, in violation of the law.

Americans watched the rioting in the U.S. Capitol in real time when it happened — and also saw how Trump watched the rioting on TV and waited 187 minutes before issuing a call for the attackers to stop.

At Mar-a-Lago, there are numerous photos showing how Trump stored confidential and top-secret documents in rooms that were unsecured.

These cases against a former President are unprecedented in American history. Only a partisan politician controlled by extremists in his own party who want to take Biden down would be attacking state and federal prosecutors while supporting the idea of a politicized impeachment process against a sitting president.

Is that you, Mr. Speaker? Is that the price of holding onto a speakership you seem to covet more than the rule of law?

Legitimate evidence needed

When it comes to Biden. McCarthy’s social media postings leave no doubt where he stands. McCarthy’s announcement about the impeachment inquiry said House Republicans had “uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct — a culture of corruption.”

Well, House Republicans have had months to investigate Biden, and have yet not produced any compelling evidence equal to their charges.

If investigations turn up legitimate evidence that Biden engaged in wrongdoing, then make that known and bring on the case. Anything less than that could leave McCarthy and the caucus he serves facing a harsh judgment for their actions in the court of public opinion and the annals of history.