A Republican legislator criticizes the House impeachment inquiry in a passionate opinion piece.
In an op-ed, Rep. Ken Buck criticized House leadership for shifting their focus to an impeachment inquiry against President Biden instead of addressing the imminent government shutdown.
Mr. Buck, Colorado Republican, wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and fellow House Republicans “flimsy excuse” of an impeachment inquiry was based on the narrative Mr. Biden benefitted from presidential son Hunter Biden’s shady business dealings.
“I cannot reword”
Meanwhile, Congress has struggled to advance spending measures in order to prevent a government shutdown. Members of Mr. Buck’s House Freedom Caucus have been at the center of the grinding halt in the lower chamber because of their demands to lower spending even further than agreed-upon spending caps in the debt-ceiling deal.
It is unlikely that spending bills will be moved ahead of the deadline, but there are discussions among allies of Mr. McCarthy and members of the House Freedom Caucus to create a temporary spending resolution in order to prevent a government shutdown.
Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, launched the impeachment inquiry earlier this week, saying the move was necessary to get records from Mr. Biden and give Congress greater investigative power.
House Republicans have mostly expressed their support for the action, although Mr. McCarthy has objected to claims that lawmakers lack sufficient evidence to proceed with the investigation.
He assigned the responsibility of examining the president to the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees.
Mr. Buck is a judiciary committee member and has been outspoken against a move to impeach Mr. Biden. Mr. Buck is also a member of the House Freedom Caucus, whose lawmakers have been demanding an impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden for months.
He claimed that the impeachment inquiry is primarily based on an imaginary portrayal of Viktor Shokin’s professional history as a former Ukrainian prosecutor.
The impeachment inquiry led by the House is focused on Mr. Biden’s actions as vice president to remove Mr. Shokin and whether this was done to halt a corruption investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden a yearly salary of $1 million.
Mr. Buck claimed that Mr. Shokin has been portrayed as an “anti-corruption enthusiast” by the “right-wing media”. However, Mr. Buck argued that in actuality, Mr. Shokin was heavily involved in Ukraine’s corrupt practices and there is no proof of him investigating Burisma, the energy company.
Mr. Buck stated that House Republicans who are eager for impeachment are basing their arguments on a fictionalized version of history.
