These guys are ballsy. I'll give 'em that, although theirs is the Baghdad Bob kind of ballsiness. When confronted by the weightiest of indisputable evidence that they have made utter fools of themselves, they do ... not ... blink. They stick to their story. They were right along.
Yes they're still right, even though "the most corroborating evidence we have" against President Biden, as House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan once described it, turns out to be a pile of papered testimony fit only for lining a bird cage.
Republicans' evidence came from an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, who harbors an intense hatred of the president. Because of this he related fable after fable to the FBI about Biden's criminal activities. Only after his arrest, charged with lying to the FBI and creating false records, did he come clean about his association with Russian intelligence officials. Their intent: to “actively [peddle] new lies that could impact US elections.”
In that they succeeded. House Republicans' boisterous impeachment inquiry into Biden's nonexistent crimes is central to their campaign strategy on behalf of candidate Trump, and the damage is already done. Streams of news videos of damning committee accusations based on Smirnov's lies cannot be rewound in the minds of many voters. Nor, of course, are the "investigative" committees about to admit their "most corroborating evidence" was sheer crap.
Last night I watched a clip from one of those videos in which the manically excitable Chairman Jordan, waving his arms and careening in his chair, boasted with skin-crawling shrillness about the "highly credible" source his committee had. They had the goods on Joe, no question about it. In this video, at 1:16, you 'll hear then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy cooly citing the "trusted FBI informant" who ratted out the president. Then comes the unctuous Elise Stafanik, who followed Jordan's cue by also noting the "highly credible" source Republicans had in their pocket, the sly devils.
Fast forward to Jordan, post-Smirnov-arrest. Prosecutors have proof that his highly credible source is an incredibly abhorrent liar. Does that faze him? Even a little? Perhaps some slight acknowledgment that Smirnov was a really bad joke? Not one iota, no siree Jim. In the first two minutes+ we see that the chairman of the Judiciary Committee — charged with overseeing the proper administration of American justice — is made of sterner, mendacious stuff, corrupt to the core.
After all the news coverage of Republicans' blundering investment in Alexander Smirnov as a Biden-derailing source, any voter still in agreement with Jordan & Co. on the preposterous topic of impeachment for nonexistent crimes would need to harbor at least the same amount of hatred for the president as the lying informant's.
In other words, just about all Republican voters. And they're the ones who snigger and sneer at Democrats' "Trump Derangement Syndrome"?
Jordan said yesterday, telling the truth for once, that "the fundamental facts of the case haven't changed."
Exactly so. It's been a pack of lies fueled and funded by Russian intelligence from the get go, and it remains so. The only thing different is there's more clear evidence of Russian interference. The Senate ought to open an investigation of the collaboration between the House GOP and Putin.
Posted by: VoiceOfReason | February 22, 2024 at 01:20 PM