Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” panel flooded its segment about House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with what-aboutisms invoking former President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced an impeachment inquiry into whether Biden was involved in and benefitted from his son Hunter’s foreign business ties. The inquiry will allow the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committee increased access to documents and evidence regarding the Biden family’s overseas business dealings.
“Willie, I don’t even know. I don’t really know where to begin. I mean, I know Jared [Kushner], I talked to him and you know, Jared worked for his father-in-law,” co-host Joe Scarborough said.
“And Ivanka worked for her father,” co-host Mika Brzezinski said.
“Ivanka worked for her father. Jared got billions of dollars directly related to the work he did for his father-in-law in official capacity from the Saudis and from others. And Ivanka, while Donald was meeting with President Xi, got all of these trademark waivers in China so she could sell her goods. They were fast tracked in China after Trump was elected and by the way, you know, we don’t talk about it much on this show.”
“This happens in politics,” Scarborough continued. “Not as obvious as it did with Donald Trump and his family and certainly not when you’re talking about the billions of dollars. But Kevin McCarthy saying we’re doing this because the administration may have helped their own family. Does he think everybody is stupid as hell and don’t realize that we’re talking about billions of dollars going into the Trump family based on business dealings while Donald Trump was president that they cashed in on right after the presidency?”
Co-host Willie Geist then deflected to Trump keeping classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago home and allegedly “leading an attempted coup” against Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. (RELATED: ‘No, No, No’: Scarborough Demands Hunter Biden’s Lawyer Explains Millions In Foreign Business Dealings)
“We haven’t seen this level of outrage from these Republicans about that, but here we are,” Geist said.
Presidential historian Jon Meacham said Americans are going along with a “Trumpist base” and accused McCarthy of using “constitutional remedies” to wage war against Biden. Panelist Jonathan Lemire also said McCarthy and other top Republicans are using the impeachment inquiry as a political tool.
Republican leadership has found evidence alleging that Biden had knowledge of and involvement in his son’s business dealings, despite Biden’s repeated denials before and after the 2020 election. A whistleblower from the Department of Justice (DOJ) handed Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley an FD-1023 form alleging that the owner of Burisma, where Hunter served as a board member, bribed Biden and his son to fire Ukraine Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
A WhatsApp message from July 2017 showed Hunter threatening a Chinese business official by pointing out that his father was in the room. Joseph Ziegler, a whistleblower with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), told Congress they were unable to access the message during their investigation into alleged Hunter’s tax and gun crimes.
Hunter’s former business associate Devon Archer testified that Hunter had his father on speaker phone while surrounded by his foreign business associates on over twenty occasions.