Of course Donald Trump is behind the Biden impeachment effort

Not surprised!

(Donald Trump)

This may be the least surprising paragraph on the political Internet today:

Over the past several months, Mr. Trump has kept a close watch on House Republicans’ momentum toward impeaching Mr. Biden. Mr. Trump has talked regularly by phone with members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and other congressional Republicans who pushed for impeachment, according to a person close to Mr. Trump who was not authorized to publicly discuss the conversations. Mr. Trump has encouraged the effort both privately and publicly.

Because, of course.

As I wrote yesterday, the impeachment investigation into Joe Biden is heavily driven by political concerns. I detailed the “why” of the investigation for Speaker Kevin McCarthy — essentially to appease the right wing and hold onto his job — but it’s also worth considering what Trump gets out of all of this.

The critical argument at the heart of all Trump’s life — and political career — goes like this: “Everybody does it.” As in, sure, I sometimes get in trouble but the truth is that everyone is doing this stuff. I am the only one who is actually honest about it.

His appeal to many of his supporters is that he may be a crook but he’s our crook. That in a town of phonies all trying to pretend that they are pristine examples of public service, Trump is the genuine article. (Yes, this is weird. But I also happen to think it’s true.)

Given that, what Trump is always looking to do is to bring people down to his level. To muddy the waters around debates about ethics. To suggest that there is a pox on both houses.

What better way to do that than to have a House impeachment of Joe Biden to tout on the campaign trail?

After all, we know that Trump is at least a little bit obsessed over his own two impeachments.

He has previously pushed House Republicans to expunge those impeachments. And, in fact, two of his closest allies in Congress — Elise Stefanik and Marjorie Taylor Greene — sponsored legislation this past summer to do just that.

“The American people know Democrats weaponized the power of impeachment against President Donald Trump to advance their own extreme political agenda,” said Stefanik in a press release announcing the expungement move. Ironic!

Now, it’s worth noting here — just for the record — that the impeachments of Trump and the impeachment investigation into Biden are, um, not equivalent.

Trump was impeached the first time for a phone call with Ukranian President Volodmyr Zelensky in July 2019 which contained a (barely) veiled quid pro quo.

Trump reminded Zelensky that the U.S. provides lots of support to Ukraine and that it’s much more than Ukraine does for the U.S.. Trump then asked Zelensky to look into allegations of wrongdoing surrounding Biden, who, at the time, was the leading Democratic candidate for the Democratic nomination.

Trump’s second impeachment came after his actions (and lack of action) on January 6, 2021 when a mob infiltrated the U.S. Capitol — spurred on by the idea that the election had been stolen. (It had not.)

It’s not entirely clear — at least to me — what House Republicans are alleging that Biden did. It seems to revolve around the idea that Biden — through his son, Hunter — benefitted financially from his time as Vice President.

But, while some of the facts aren’t great for Biden — he repeatedly got on the phone with Hunter’s clients, according to a former business associate — there is no evidence I have seen that suggests Joe Biden was either deeply involved in or profited from Hunter’s business dealings

But, again, none of this matters to Trump. He is not someone who spends a whole lot of time terribly worried about the facts of the matter.

He wants impeachment as a cudgel that he can beat Biden up with throughout the next year. If Biden has been impeached then Trump’s own impeachment matters less — or at least that’s how he thinks.

And, as we have seen time and time again over these past 8 years, Republican elected officials seem totally willing to give Trump exactly what he wants. Because they fear the consequences of making him unhappy.

Someone a long time ago gave me a very apt way to think about Trump — and the process of running against him. They said that you can’t get down in the mud with the pig because you both get dirty — and the pig likes it.

What this impeachment effort is then is an attempt to drag Biden down into the mud. To get him dirty so that Trump can say that he’s not the only unclean one in the race.

For Trump to win in 2024, the general election has to be a race to the bottom. It has to be one in which some large swath of voters broadly dislike both candidates and, eventually, hold their nose to vote for one of them.

Not exactly how the Founding Fathers imagined it!