Senate Republicans were for Biden's anti-corruption efforts before they were against them
It’s no coincidence that less than 24 hours removed from dominant Democratic primary wins for Joe Biden in Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Idaho that Senate Republicans are preparing to advance their fishing-expedition targeting the former vice president’s son, Hunter Biden.
Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and and Governmental Affairs Committee, is acting as the tip of the spear for Donald Trump’s reelection campaign. His investigations are nothing more than taxpayer-funded opposition research being conducted on behalf of the president. Republicans are betting that they can make Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings the 2020 version of Benghazi, Libya.
This is a particularly negligent use of the committee’s time and resources when you consider the impact the new coronavirus is having on the American people. Johnson’s committee has jurisdiction of homeland security and government operations. Surely, as we try to manage a public health crisis, Republicans can find better ways to utilize their pulpit than a taxpayer-financed witch hunt. Nevertheless, Johnson and his Republican colleagues seem determined to move forward with their politically motivated investigation.
The first step involves a subpoena to a company called Blue Star Strategies with specific focus on a consultant named Andrii Telizhenko, who also worked at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington. Telizhenko is better known as a central figure in the effort to promote debunked Russian conspiracy theories alleging Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. This is a character who met with some of Trump’s most ardent defenders, including House Intelligence Committee Republican leader Devin Nunes and the president’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. Under any unbiased investigative standard, Telizhenko is not a credible witness, and any information Senate Republicans obtain from him or his firm is, at best, suspect.
Efforts to taint the Democratic front-runner
This subpoena will be the opening salvo in what will be an ongoing effort to smear the apparent Democratic front-runner for president. This political hit job masquerading as an investigation is overrun by hypocrisy.
At the heart of the matter is the lie that as vice president, Biden leveraged foreign aid to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company that put his son on its board. That prosecutor was Viktor Shokin, who used his office to undermine a British money-laundering probe that involved Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. Shokin wasn’t fired for investigating Burisma; he was terminated because he wasn’t.
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The irony is, the Obama-Biden administration’s effort to reform the prosecutor general’s office was a bipartisan effort that had the support of Senate Republicans. A bipartisan letter sent in February of 2016 urged then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to “press ahead with urgent reforms to the prosecutor general’s office and judiciary.”
That letter was signed by Republican Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
It’s also important to point out that using the loan guarantee as leverage to compel a more tangible commitment from Ukraine to fight corruption wasn’t some a backroom scheme created by Joe Biden. In fact, it was U.S. policy that was openly discussed. Just ask the Republicans who were in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing room in March of 2016 when Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland testified that it was a U.S. priority to get a “new prosecutor general who is committed” to “indicting and prosecuting the corrupt."
Nuland also pointed out that “our next $1 billion loan guarantee” was predicated on “ensuring that the prosecutor general’s office gets cleaned up.”
Senate Republicans are investigating actions taken by the Obama-Biden administration that they were fully aware of and vocally supported. They are using their oversight authority to try to smear the Biden name in the hopes that the appearance of a congressional investigation is enough to taint the Democratic front-runner for president. It is a blatant abuse of power that cynically relies on Russia-backed propaganda to deliver Trump a second term.
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Republicans will try to make things appear distorted and complex, but don’t be fooled. The facts are very simple. There is zero evidence that Vice President Biden acted in any way to benefit his son. Shokin was not actively investigating Burisma at the time of his dismissal. Senate Republicans openly supported the U.S. policy to compel Ukraine to make changes in the prosecutor general’s office. There was a widespread international consensus supporting the anti-corruption efforts Biden was championing. Anything or anyone who says otherwise is acting as a propaganda vehicle for Russia.
Kurt Bardella is a "Morning Joe" contributor and a member of USA TODAY’s Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter: @KurtBardella
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Republican senators were for Biden's anti-corruption efforts
