House Speaker Mike Johnson was criticized after he made a groan-inducing claim about the Republican Party, referring to the GOP as "the rule of law team" in remarks addressing a baseless impeachment inquiry against President Biden.
Johnson—who has alleged that corruption has led his party to pursue an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden—is a supporter of former President Donald Trump, who faces 91 state and federal charges, among them for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election result.
Notably, Johnson himself urged Trump to "exhaust every available legal remedy to restore Americans' trust in the fairness of our election system" and that he was heartened by Trump's intention to ensure "that all instances of fraud and illegality are investigated and prosecuted."
Despite all this, he said:
"I came in as the new Speaker and I said, 'Again, as the rule of law team, we're going to follow the law.' That's where negotiations stand. We're awaiting a volley from the other side should there be one but the House has done its job."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
Social media users on X, formerly Twitter, did not hold back their criticism of Johnson for such an outlandish claim, bringing inconvenient facts to the table.
The inquiry, which accuses Biden of influence peddling, has been praised by members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have repeatedly attempted to link the President to his son Hunter's business deals. The younger Biden has been the subject of GOP-led investigations into his business interests and in September was indicted on federal gun charges. Conveniently, they completely ignore the actual influence peddling and self-dealing that the Trump family engaged in during his four years in office.
Earlier today, USAToday published an op-ed from Johnson in which he defends an impeachment inquiry and says that the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees "will continue investigating the role of the president in promoting the alleged influence-peddling schemes of his family and associates, the orchestration of which reaped millions of dollars in payments from America’s foreign adversaries."
Johnson said House Republicans are prepared to go to court "to gather the evidence and provide transparency to the American people." He said, with no trace of irony, that he "served on the impeachment defense team of former President Donald Trump on both occasions when House Democrats abused the process."
Trump, of course, was impeached twice for actions he took while president. By contrast, Republicans in the House have not only failed to deliver evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden, but there is no high crime or misdemeanor alleged that is connected to Biden's time as president.
@WhiteHouse/X
