Two things can be true at once. One, there is a whole lot of circumstantial dirt on Joe Biden – and some of the evidence is a LOT more than circumstantial. Two, Democrats didn’t have HALF the evidence on Trump that the GOP has on Biden, and they went whole hog on impeachment.

At some point, the GOP is going to have to get over playing the moral high ground. Democrats are never going to accept any impeachment charges against Joe Biden, unless there is a picture of him accepting some giant check from Ukraine with Hunter holding the other end of it. And even then, they will claim it’s photoshopped. There is nothing short of the old man admitting that Hunter traded on the family name and he used his influence as vice president to make sure large amounts of money got into the Biden family coffers that will convince the left of the sleazy Biden shakedown schemes. Now, even the Ukrainian prosecutor that Joe Biden openly bragged about getting fired, Viktor Shokin, has given an interview to Fox News saying that he believes that the Bidens were bribed.

During the interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade, Shokin said he was ousted in 2016 because he was investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company where Hunter Biden served on the board. Shokin also claimed that Joe and Hunter Biden accepted bribes in the case, and that the then-vice president ultimately hurt America’s reputation and created the groundwork for Russia to invade Ukraine.

“I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma,” Shokin told Fox News in the interview which aired Saturday evening.

“You understood me correctly, this is how it was,” he added after a follow-up question from Kilmeade about Biden’s involvement. “There were no complaints whatsoever and no problems with how I was performing at my job. But because pressure was repeatedly put on [then-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, that is what ended up in him firing me.”

Now, Shokin has an axe to grind with Joe Biden, undoubtedly. Regardless of whether or not the Bidens took bribes, Joe has openly admitted that he got Shokin fired, so naturally there’s going to be bitterness there. But the GOP has Biden’s own words bragging that he got Shokin canned by withholding aid money, they’ve got shell LLCs and bank transfers that were flagged, they have Hunter traveling the world and shaking down foreign nationals for money saying “my dad is sitting next to me,” they have testimony from Devon Archer that Joe would call in while Hunter was in business meetings, they have Joe having special dinners with Hunter’s little friends at Cafe Milano, and they have Hunter’s laptop that has emails and emails and emails – including ones sent to Joe Biden pseudonyms like “Robert L. Peters,” “JRB Ware,” and “Robin Ware.” For those who have forgotten, Joe’s full name is “Joseph Robinette Biden” and he is from Delaware, and Hunter’s legal first name is Robert (he has gone by his middle name since childhood).

Every time the House Oversight Committee puts out a press release, there is smoke. There’s a choking, thick amount of smoke now. Democrats are trying to blithely hold their noses and claim that they don’t smell anything. But the GOP, as the party in charge of the House, is the one who can launch an official impeachment inquiry. Which means that all eyes are on Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who talks a big game, but so far, seems more concerned that the Republicans have to prove to the American people that We Are Better Than The Democrats™, which means the GOP is moving at a snail’s pace.

It looks like a culture of corruption inside Biden Inc. pic.twitter.com/e7vk6y25GC

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) August 28, 2023

Look, we all get that McCarthy is worried about making impeachment a serious business. But after two impeachments of Donald Trump, it’s not. It should be, but it’s not. Impeachment is a political double-edged axe that has been wielded by one side when they had power, and we warned them at the time that the blade would come swinging back at them someday. Someday needs to be RIGHT NOW. But the GOP is waffling between those who are ready, and those who want a smoking gun that everyone believes in.

House Republicans are barreling toward an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, with some saying the conference should pull the trigger as soon as next month when Congress reconvenes.

“It’s a must,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told The Hill in an interview. “I mean, if not now, when?”

“We got enough not just to start to inquiry, but we got enough to impeach him,” he added.

Other GOP lawmakers, however, say they are not ready to take the plunge.

“I think before we move on to [an] impeachment inquiry, we should … there should be a direct link to the president in some evidence,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told The Hill in an interview. “We should have some clear evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor, not just assuming there may be one. I think we need to have more concrete evidence to go down that path.”

We can point fingers at McCarthy for waffling, but with Congressmen like Don Bacon asking for “more concrete evidence,” then we’re all in trouble. McCarthy, for his part, did say in his Sunday interview that an impeachment inquiry is “a natural step forward,” but refused to say when anything would actually happen, only saying that the caucus would have to discuss it after the summer recess.

First things first. The GOP has to get rid of this idea that they are doing this for some noble and non-political reason.

Members visiting their districts over the August recess say they are frequently asked about impeachment. Lawmakers voice concerns about evidence gathered through GOP investigations, in addition to the appointment of a special counsel in the Justice Department’s probe into Hunter Biden, the president’s son. And mounting indictments against former President Trump are further fueling frustration among the conservative base.

McCarthy, as well as other members, stress they will not pursue impeachment for political purposes and that they will be judicious in their investigation — even as they argue the various indictments against Trump are unfair.

“I just want to be very clear that it’s not political. They’re not afraid to punch at our guys. They threw two impeachments at Trump,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). “I believe that’s political, and sometimes you gotta punch back. But I want to be very clear on this: This isn’t a political response.”

The Democrats broke that glass when they impeached Trump twice. The genie will not go back into the bottle. Impeachment is a political tool, and the base doesn’t care if Republicans want to find a pure and holy reason to impeach Biden. They have enough smoke to send signals from Los Angeles to New York City – how many families do YOU know with over twenty LLCs? – and even though House Oversight is waiting on those emails to come in from “Robert L. Peters” and company, that should not stop an impeachment inquiry from being opened. An inquiry is designed to collect all the evidence in one place in order to make a determination as to whether or not articles of impeachment should be drawn up. It doesn’t mean that all investigations stop. Obviously, you want enough ducks in a row to prove the case, but is waiting on the National Archives to cough up emails enough of a reason to keep waiting?

Hunter Biden may yet be nailed for FARA charges, despite the DOJ’s attempt to cover their asses and give him a sweetheart plea deal. Would Hunter’s lawyers really call on Joe to defend Hunter on the stand, as they once claimed they would? And what would happen if the DOJ was forced to cross-examine Joe, whose mental faculties are failing to the point that no one could actually know what he might say on the stand? But if Hunter gets charged under FARA, and the money can be shown to have been spread out amongst the Biden family, including to Joe and Jill, then what are we waiting for? There will be no engraved invitation asking for impeachment. The GOP is going to have to grow a spine. Yes, we know that Biden won’t be convicted in the Senate. But that didn’t stop Democrats from impeaching Trump, did it?

Featured image: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), cropped, official photo, public domain