The GOP’s latest anti-Biden witness extends the party’s losing streak

If you steered clear of far-right social media accounts over the weekend, you might not know about fake developments that sparked considerable hysteria in Republican circles. Devon Archer, a former Hunter Biden business associate, was poised to testify before the GOP-led House Oversight Committee, and Republicans were convinced that the Justice Department was trying to prevent that from happening as part of a nefarious partisan plot.

The claims were quickly and easily discredited, but for a short while, prominent GOP voices were apoplectic about this. Naturally, folks like Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia helped lead the charge, but they weren’t alone.

Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York claimed that federal prosecutors might themselves be criminals, engaging in “witness intimidation” and “obstruction of justice,” while Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina suggested Congress might need to respond to this entirely bogus controversy by defunding federal law enforcement and impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Making matters worse, the circus also included House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, all of whom pretended the imagined outrage was real. It was not.

This was, by any fair measure, utterly bonkers. It was also soon rendered moot when the scheduled congressional hearing happened as scheduled, and it produced nothing that advanced the GOP’s crusade against President Joe Biden. The New York Times reported that Archer told lawmakers that Biden, before becoming president, occasionally had casual interactions with his son’s business associates, but that’s all he did.

[I]n nearly five hours of closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee, Devon Archer, the former partner, asserted that the elder Mr. Biden was not party to any of his son’s business deals and that Hunter Biden had tried to sell the illusion that he was providing access to his powerful father when he was not, according to Democrats on the panel.

Democratic Rep. Daniel Goldman of New York issued a brief statement online, explaining that he was the only member of the Oversight panel who stayed for the entire multi-hour hearing. He came away with two simple observations: According to the Republicans’ own witness, Joe Biden never talked business with his son or his son’s associates, and there was no bribe.

Approved ~ FS

Article URL : https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/gops-latest-anti-biden-witness-extends-partys-losing-streak-rcna97493