 Earlier this month Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy directed the House of Representatives to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. According to McCarthy, “House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct. Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption”. These are serious allegations. Is there any truth to them, or just the actions of a group of House Republicans attempting to damage the President in the runup to the 2024 presidential election? Let’s examine the allegations and the implications for President Biden. Does Donald Trump factor into any of this, and what are Kevin McCarthy’s true motivations behind his impeachment inquiry into Biden?  The Allegations: During a September 12, 2023 news conference Speaker McCarthy outlined the following charges against President Biden:
 A Little Background: The President’s son Hunter has gone through a much-publicized period of his life addicted to alcohol and crack cocaine. Hunter is currently in recovery and we wish him well. Let’s just say that Hunter was not a model citizen during this period of his life. Hunter Biden has been under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware since 2018, looking into his foreign business dealings, amongst other things. The investigation uncovered the fact that Hunter failed to pay taxes on approximately $1.5 million in undeclared income he earned from his foreign business activities. He subsequently paid the income taxes and penalties, and in June of this year plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges. The U.S attorney’s investigation also discovered that Hunter had made false statements on an application to purchase a firearm, and illegally purchased a firearm while addicted to drugs. These gun charges have led to Hunter being indicted on three felony counts earlier this month.  President Biden loves his son and is very protective of him. The Republicans know this, and the cynic in me believes that they sense that the President is vulnerable because of this relationship and will try to exploit it. In other words, they are attempting to damage Joe Biden through the dealings of his troubled son. Basis for the Allegations Against Joe Biden: Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China have been extensively reported on over the past few years. Hunter details his foreign business deals in his 2022 book “Beautiful Things, A Memoir”. Hunter Biden also provided information about his foreign business dealings in court testimony during his trial for tax evasion. This information is not new, but more importantly, there has never been any proof that Hunter Biden’s activities or those of other Biden family members were linked to Joe Biden. For several months the House Oversight Committee has been conducting an investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business activities. The Committee is also looking into the financial and business dealings of other Biden family members. The Committee’s intent is “to determine whether these activities compromise U.S. national security and President Biden’s ability to lead with impartiality.” The witness testimony during the Congressional investigation didn’t provide any direct link between President Biden and his son’s business activities, but it nonetheless formed the basis of Speaker McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry.  Where is the Crime? Let’s look at the allegations one at a time.
 Impeachment as a Political Weapon: The allegations against President Biden seem pretty thin, but that’s beside the point. A handful of House Republicans on the extreme-right had vowed to impeach President Biden as soon they took over leadership of the House of Representatives. Kevin McCarthy is beholden to these hard-liners for voting him in as Speaker. In order for McCarthy to move ahead with his agenda, not the least of which is a spending bill to fund the government, he must appease his right wing. More importantly, if McCarthy had not moved ahead with the impeachment inquiry there was a real possibility that he would lose his speakership.  The extreme right within the Republican Party has pledged its fealty to Donald Trump, not to Kevin McCarthy. It has been reported that Donald Trump has privately discussed the impeachment of Joe Biden with House Republicans. In a recent interview with Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump suggested that the impeachment inquiry is payback for the Democrats impeaching him twice. “They did it to me,” Trump told Megyn Kelly during an hourlong interview on SiriusXM radio. “And had they not done it to me, I think, and nobody officially said this, but I think had they not done it to me … perhaps you wouldn’t have it being done to them.” During several campaign rallies this summer Trump has been pushing for the impeachment of Joe Biden, and has threatened Republicans by stating that “Republicans in Congress that don’t act on Biden, they should be immediately primaried and get out”. Donald Trump is out for revenge and he has plenty of loyal foot soldiers to do his bidding.  Impact on Joe Biden: There is slim possibility that the House of Representatives will vote to impeach President Biden. Even if they did, he would not be convicted in the Democrat controlled Senate. Nonetheless, House Republicans have succeeded in appeasing Donald Trump, creating a distraction for President Biden, and may even have convinced some voters that he is guilty by association with his son’s sketchy foreign activities. The 2024 presidential election is going to be close, and one more vulnerability for Joe Biden, no matter how small or inaccurate, doesn’t bode well. It creates more grey clouds over his campaign in what is already gearing up to be a stormy election. Hunter Biden benefitted handsomely off his famous last name. This may be unseemly, but it is not illegal. Joe Biden has no one to blame but himself for his current predicament. Yes, the House Republicans are acting shamelessly, but that’s politics. Biden should have stifled his son’s ambitions about becoming an international business and political consultant before it started. Joe Biden has too much political experience, as well as intimate knowledge of his son’s weaknesses, not to have kept Hunter on a tight leash. President Biden is not guilty of the allegations leveled against him by Speaker McCarthy. But he is guilty of letting the love for his son cloud his better judgment.  If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 @gmail.com.
Thanks, Armchair American September 25, 2023
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 In the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, there has been a lot of speculation that Donald Trump’s involvement would disqualify him from ever holding public office again. The legal justification for disqualification is spelled out in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The first legal action to test whether or not Donald Trump can be disqualified under the Fourteenth Amendment took place in a Colorado District Court last week. The nonprofit group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, on behalf of six Colorado voters, filed a lawsuit against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold. The lawsuit was filed to prevent Donald Trump from appearing on Colorado’s Republican presidential primary election ballot and any future election ballot based on his disqualification to hold public office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The lawsuit also seeks to prevent Colorado’s Secretary of State from taking any action that would allow Donald Trump to appear on the ballot. Does the lawsuit in Colorado have any merit, and will it prevent Donald Trump from appearing on the Republican primary ballot? Before we can answer these questions let’s first exam Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment to see if it has any application to Donald Trump and the 2024 Presidential election.  Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment: It was adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War to prevent military officers, federal officers, and state officials who served in the Confederacy from holding any future public office. Sometimes referred to as the disqualification clause, Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment reads as follows: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or an executive or judicial officer of any State, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”  Ambiguities Exist: Like many sections of the U.S. Constitution, there is a lot of ambiguity in Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and its applicability in the aftermath of January 6th is uncertain. After about 1869 there has been very little case law to provide clarity about this section of the Constitution. Some of the issues yet to be resolved include:
 Recent Court Action: There was a court case last year in New Mexico which merits mention due to its relevance to January 6th. Couy Griffin, a New Mexico County Commissioner, was convicted of illegally entering the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021. As a result of his conviction a group of New Mexico voters sued to have him removed from office on the grounds that he violated Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment. A state judge agreed and had him removed from office and disqualified him from holding any office in the future. The New Mexico Supreme Court refused to overturn the ruling. Griffin vows to take his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The removal of Couy Griffin from public office was the only successful case to be brought under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment since 1869. The significance of this case is that it was the first time a judge has formally ruled that the events of January 6, 2021 were an “insurrection”.  Applicability to Donald Trump: Donald Trump has called the use of the Fourteenth Amendment to keep him off any election ballot simply “election interference”. In a recent social media post, he stated that “almost all legal scholars have voiced opinions that the 14th Amendment has no legal basis or standing relative to the upcoming 2024 Presidential Election”. Many of us watched the attack on the U.S. Capitol live on television or at least read about it. No one can dispute that there were crimes committed at the Capitol on that day and perhaps on the days leading up to January 6, 2021. Millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump incited the Capitol riot and fanned the flames of insurrection. But there are millions of other Americans who believe that Donald Trump isn’t guilty of any crimes, and is not responsible for the violence that took place at the Capitol. Therefore, there is no clear consensus on Donald Trump’s role in the January 6th Capitol riot.  The Department of Justice has charged more than 1,100 defendants with various crimes related to January 6th, and over half have pleaded guilty. The most serious charge any of the defendants has been convicted of is seditious conspiracy. Seditious conspiracy does not rise to the level of a Section 3 violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. More to the point, Donald Trump has not been convicted of any crime related to January 6th and none of the indictments that he currently faces are for insurrection, rebellion, or giving aid or comfort to the enemies of the United States. I am not a lawyer, but is seems improbable that any State could keep Donald Trump off of an election ballot based on violations of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Final Note: The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol issued its final report on December 22, 2022. Recommendation 4 in the report addresses the need to clarify the provisions of Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, and how it may be used against Donald Trump and other defendants. The Select Committee referred Donald Trump and others to the Department of Justice for possible prosecution “for assisting and providing aid and comfort to an insurrection.” The final report also makes note of the fact that two members of the committee have introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to declare the January 6th assault an insurrection, and legislation “to establish specific procedures and standards for disqualification under section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.” The recommendations in the final report are going nowhere in the Republican controlled House of Representatives. The pending lawsuit in Colorado to keep Donald Trump off of the Republican presidential primary ballot will not be the last case of its kind. Other states will be following this case closely and are already considering similar legal actions against candidates or officials who were involved in the January 6th Capitol riot. But without further guidance from the U.S. Supreme Court or the Congress, these cases have little chance of succeeding. It is important to remember that despite his numerous criminal indictments, Donald Trump has not yet been convicted of any federal crimes. Therefore, he should be presumed innocent until he is proven guilty. Further use of the judicial system to prevent Donald Trump from running for president will only feed into his narrative that the legal system is being weaponized against him. It will also foster more distrust of the judicial system and further embolden Trump and his supporters. The only way to beat Donald Trump is at the ballot box.  Let the American voters decide. If you enjoy reading this type of commentary please subscribe to my blog and tell a friend. You will receive an email notification when new blogs are posted. The email will come from the site’s email: armchairamerican1776 @gmail.com.
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