Repub Biden impeachment based on debunked notion

On Thursday, House Republicans began their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. This entire effort is based, in large part, on a long-debunked right-wing conspiracy theory.

The story goes like this: Then-Vice President Biden warned Ukrainian leaders in 2014 that the United States would withhold $1 billion in promised loan guarantees if they didn’t dismiss Viktor Shokin, Ukraine’s prosecutor general. Conservatives claim that Biden demanded Shokin’s firing because the prosecutor was investigating Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company on whose board Hunter Biden sat.

This demonstrably bogus narrative has been repeatedly debunked. Shokin was remarkably corrupt and leveraging aid to oust him was U.S. government policy. During a recent interview on Fox News, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called Shokin a “completely crazy person.” Predictably, the network buried the interview, in stark contrast with the nearly three hours the network spent revisiting snippets from its interview with Shokin last month.

Media Matters’ Matt Gertz wrote this great piece highlighting 27 facts that dismantle the right-wing disinformation campaign.

For right-wing media, the factual basis for impeaching Biden has never really mattered. Since the 2020 election, Fox News personalities have relentlessly searched for literally any reason to impeach the president. Fox finally got its wish when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) capitulated to the demands of his extremist caucus earlier this month and announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden.

After the first day of the House impeachment inquiry proved to be a complete embarrassment for Republicans, Fox tried to save face by pushing clearly doctored and out of context evidence against Biden. Facts and reality are irrelevant inside the Fox News bubble.

• Donald Trump suggested that former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, should be executed. TV news barely mentioned it.

• On Tuesday, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Donald Trump consistently committed fraud while amassing his real estate properties. While this should be a crushing blow against Trump's profile as a successful business genius, right-wing media is sweeping the ruling under the rug.

• Federal funding for child care from the American Rescue Plan is set to expire on September 30, which could have dire consequences for American children. Yet TV news is barely covering it.

Media Matters e-mail of Fri, Sep 29 2023