The Washington Post is where Reporting the News died. Woodward and Bernstein did an excellent job of Reporting the mishaps of the Nixon Administration. While those mishaps when compared to the ones we are witnessing today are laughable in comparison. It was excellent reporting, but the side effect was led to the complete destruction of the 4th Estate.

The toppling of a President was an immense feat, No matter where you stand politically it was the coup of all time for a reporter. Every reporter wants that “Big Story”. Rather than inspiring others into deep investigation of facts waiting to find that big one, Reporters instead were inspired to seek the fame that Woodward and Bernstein acquired as their goal. They became “Journalists”.

Rather than chase facts “Journalists” chase headlines. The better the headline the more the fame, whether the headline was true or not became less and less important. This developed into what we have today. “Journalist’s” that have become mouthpieces for those in power. Currying favor with those they are supposed to watch over instead intertwined with them to get a leaked piece of information. A piece of some salacious intrigue, rather then dig into the immense corruption they are surrounded by.

The fame and money that comes with it are the goal, everything else is irrelevant. The thing that is supposed to matter the most, the provable facts of the story is the thing that matter least. No other time in history than the last 10 years have the press been as corrupt as the people they are supposed to be investigating the Politicians.

Is America ready for another impeachment? McCarthy thinks maybe so.

With a fight over spending and a government shutdown possible amid GOP demands for spending cuts, McCarthy’s talk of an impeachment inquiry involving President Biden brings additional risks for his party

Analysis by Dan Balz Chief correspondent

House Republicans have spent a good part of this year in a series of investigations into President Biden’s administration and family. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) says the next “natural step” is to move toward an impeachment inquiry for President Biden. Really?

Yes really, the Presidents Son received a Million Dollars a year from Burisma to use his office to get the Prosecutor to stop investigating Burisma for corruption and bragged about it in a Press Conference. Bribery does not have to go directly to the politician. Like Woodward & Bernstein were told “Follow the Money”

McCarthy’s justification is his assertion that the House is having difficulty getting the documents it wants for investigations that have been principally focused on Hunter Biden, the president’s son, but that Republicans are convinced implicate the president. An impeachment inquiry, he claims, would give the House the power to get the information they want.

The White House, and The National Archives, are stonewalling and hiding Documents. They refuse to turn over “Non-Classified” e-mails, letters, and correspondence. That is fact. Subpoena power in an inquiry would force into the public view this fact, and might even force rags like the Washington Post to cover that fact.

McCarthy, who needed 15 ballots to claim the speakership, is caught between the demands of a restive Republican base looking for payback for the fact that former president Donald Trump has been indicted on 91 counts in four jurisdictions, including over efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and the reality that the public is nowhere near a judgment that such an inquiry into the sitting president is justified. If McCarthy is serious about labeling any further investigation with the word “impeachment,” it would carry considerable risk for the Republican Party.

This paragraph is trash journalism, pure political spin. The PUBLIC is demanding an investigation it is the Press trying to block it while they cheer fake charges being brought against Biden’s political opponent. The only risk to the Republicans is if they don’t do an Impeachment Inquiry.

After McCarthy made his latest comments, Ian Sams, the White House spokesman for these matters, sent out a message on X, formerly Twitter, that said, “This crazy exercise is rooted not in facts & truth but partisan shamelessness.” Still, the White House is preparing for an impeachment inquiry to begin sometime this fall.

Political Spin. Not the reporting of facts.

The team geared up a year ago in anticipation that Republicans would win the House in the midterm elections and launch investigations, so an operation of lawyers, legislative experts and communications specialists has long existed. They have spent the year battling back against claims coming from congressional Republicans. Now they are prepared for what could be a significant escalation.

They weaponized the system against Trump and have been preparing for the Republicans to do the same.

All of this comes as Congress returns from its August recess with the prospect of a government shutdown looming as Republican hard-liners are demanding more stringent budget cuts. This marks the second time in a matter of months that House Republicans are playing brinkmanship with the public purse.

It’s not “brinkmanship” it’s Constitutional order. The House has the power of the purse in the Constitution for just this reason. To reel in an out of control Executive Branch. You would think a “Chief correspondent” for one of the nations largest papers to have at the least a vague understanding of that.

The first came after Freedom Caucus members demanded deep cuts in spending as their price to agree to raise the government’s borrowing authority (to cover spending previously authorized). A default by the government was averted when Biden and McCarthy reached an agreement, though one that fell short of what the hard-liners had been demanding but which some lawmakers hoped would head off another confrontation this fall.

Pure spin lacking fact and explanation.

White House officials have called on lawmakers to approve a short-term measure that would give everyone more time to find an acceptable funding package by the end of the year. That would delay, but not resolve, the showdown over spending.

There is no such thing as a “Spending Package”. The Budget is made up of 12 Spending Bills that are supposed to be finished by the end of September. These Bills have unconstitutionally been lumped into one “Omnibus” Bill which is not Constitutional an NEVER actually creates a budget, but extends a previous on as is with increases in spending. No cuts, no reviews, no negotiating, just more money.

For some Republicans, impeachment is nowdirectly tied to the debate over keeping the government open. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told her constituents on Thursday that she would not vote to fund the government “unless we have passed an impeachment inquiry for Joe Biden.”

Good for her, a woman with Principal.

Impeachment used to be the tool provided by the founders to hold presidents and other officials to account for “treason, bribery or other high crimes or misdemeanors.” It was assumed that the mechanism would be used sparingly.

Except Nancy Pelosi as Speaker destroyed that. She Impeached the last president without even any inquiries. The 2nd Impeachment was done because Trump had the nerve to look into Biden’s Bribery from Ukraine. That’s what the “Perfect phone call” was about. Biden’s Bribery.

To date, there have been five such proceedings involving presidents.

President Andrew Johnson was the first to be impeached in 1868. He was impeached for firing a member of his Cabinet in violation of a law barring him from doing so. He was acquitted in the Senate trial by one vote.

President Richard M. Nixon was the second to face such an inquiry during the Watergate scandal. He resigned after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment but before the full House voted. Had the process run its course, Nixon might have been convicted in a Senate trial in a bipartisan vote.

President Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 after lying during an investigation by independent counsel Kenneth Starr into the president’s sexual encounters with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Two articles were approved by the House — one for lying under oath and the other for obstruction of justice. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate on both counts. His conduct was widely judged as inexcusable, but he retained public approval in large part because the offenses were personal in nature and not official acts.

President Donald Trump set the record for presidential impeachments. The first came over his efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to dig up dirt on Biden and his son ahead of the 2020 election. Before the phone call, Trump had frozen aid to Ukraine. Trump was acquitted by the Republican-led Senate. One Republican — Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah — voted to convict.

The second impeachment came in the weeks after Trump’s followers attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after he had whipped up his loyalists with bogus claims of a stolen election. The former president currently faces two criminal indictments — one federal and the other in Georgia — resulting from his actions leading up to that attack.

This “Chief correspondent” is an idiot. That if you counted it would be the 3rd Impeachment and since Trump was no longer the President but was in the stages of transition back into being a civilian he couldn’t be Impeached. The result of Jan 6 was the J6 Witch Trial, not an impeachment.

Ten House Republicans joined Democrats to impeach Trump over the Jan. 6 attack and seven Republican senators voted to convict him. Even some who voted to acquit him, among them Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), said Trump bore principal responsibility for the Capitol attack.

Continued spin and stupidity by the “Chief Correspondent”.

Fox News had fed its viewers a steady diet of stories purporting to reveal widespread corruption in the Biden family, based largely on the misdeeds of the president’s son. Republican lawmakers have examined Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings when his father was vice president. The president’s son is facing trial in federal court after an earlier plea deal with prosecutors collapsed. That case involves tax and firearm charges, not any foreign payments.

Hunter Biden is the family Bagman that collects the money from selling the Influence of his father. The corrupt “Plea Deal” gave Hunter immunity from being investigated for EVERYTHING during the time the President was VP until now preventing the investigation of President Biden for Bribery since all the money flowed through Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden, who has battled drug addiction, may be guilty of crimes. His upcoming trial will answer that question. He used poor judgment by profiting from the position of his father. Republicans have pointed to phone calls and two dinner meetings involving the president (then vice president), his son and his son’s business associates as questionable enough to demand more information.

The “Chief Correspondent” is so stupid that he admits the President is guilty of Bribery. The Bribery Law states that anyone using an elected officials “Name and Position” whether the politician recieves a dime of the money is still guilty of Bribery. This “Chief Correspondent” ignores the Law and admits that is exactly what happened with Hunter.

Devon Archer, one of Hunter Biden’s business partners, testified before House Oversight Committee investigators that then-vice president Biden spoke with his son during business meetings about 20 times over a decade. Most were on speaker phone but in two instances, there were dinners he attended.

Proof of influence selling testified to under Oath and excepted as undisputable fact.

Archer said the elder Biden did not discuss any business dealings during those calls or meetings but also indicated there was an effort on Hunter’s part to sell “the brand.” Biden left himself open to criticism for not keeping more distance from Hunter’s business associates. Many Republicans believe there is much more to it but haven’t been able to prove it. Others in the party remain skeptical.

It proves itself. They were selling influence. If not please name the Product or Service that they were selling. “The Brand” is influence nothing else.

During the Clinton impeachment proceedings, Republicans paid a political price, losing seats in the 1998 midterm elections in defiance of history. Democrats see McCarthy’s moves as an effort to turn public attention away from the upcoming Trump trials on more serious allegations or to create a false equivalence in the minds of voters.

Spin

The speaker’s political standing remains tenuous, given the narrow majority he oversees and the rebelliousness of his hard-right fringe. Some of McCarthy’s colleagues have expressed doubts or outright opposition to moving forward with an impeachment inquiry. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) described such talk as “theater” and a “shiny object.”

Any Republican or Democrat that opposes an Inquiry should be primaried and run out of office. More so on the Republican side, the Democrats don’t believe in the Constitution, but the Republicans are supposed to.

McCarthy has been warned by allies, including some who believe there is enough on the public record to escalate the investigation to another level, to go slowly in the hope of turning up enough credible evidence to cause a shift in public opinion. If McCarthy lurches ahead to satisfy his base and then fails to deliver the goods against the president, the backlash could be costly to him and his party.

There will only be backlash if they don’t proceed to the Inquiry. What this “Chief Correspondent” fears is that an inquiry would expose the lack of coverage of the facts by the MSM led by the Washington Post.

By Dan Balz Dan Balz is chief correspondent at The Washington Post. He has served as the paper’s deputy national editor, political editor, White House correspondent and Southwest correspondent. Twitter

Dan Balz is a propagandist, and the Washington Post is tied only with the NY Times as which deserve the label of being America’s Pravda.