The Biden Impeachment Has Been Great for Joe Biden
Plus: A cryptic statement sends Capitol Hill into a frenzy
When Tony Bobulinksi, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, claimed just before the 2020 election that Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business affairs was greater than previously known, a velvet rope was unclipped and he was hastily ushered into the conservative media VIP room.
Bobulinski conducted sitdowns with Tucker Carlson. Hugh Hewitt exhorted then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to remember that “oversight will be more necessary than ever in the Senate” after the 2020 election, directly citing Bobulinski’s accusations. “How Is the Bobulinski Story Not on Every Front Page and Leading Every News Broadcast?” asked National Review, incredulously.
A quick refresher: In 2017, Bobulinski worked with Hunter Biden and a handful of other people on an LLC called SinoHawk, which sought investments on behalf of the Chinese energy company CEFC. Weeks before the 2020 election, Bobulinski claimed to have loads of evidence that Joe Biden was involved in these foreign business deals, but even presumably sympathetic journalists at Fox News and the Wall Street Journal couldn’t find evidence to support his claims at the time, and he hasn’t produced any since. Meanwhile, multiple committee witnesses have disputed Bobulinski’s claims.
But this week, the House Oversight Committee deposed Bobulinski as part of its ongoing haphazard impeachment inquiry into the president. What happened the moment the deposition concluded felt quite familiar to those who have followed the inquiry:
Oversight Chairman James Comer issued a declarative statement, unencumbered by evidence or specific details, that President Biden is corrupt.
Fox News reporter Brooke Singman published EXCLUSIVE bombshell reports recounting Bobulinski’s story that Biden “enabled” the sale of access to “dangerous adversaries” and that Biden is “the big guy,” along with other words in liability-limiting “scare quotes.”
What Bobulinski actually offered Oversight members inside the room turned out to be more of what he’s been trying to sell lawmakers and journalists for years: more conjecture and underwhelming, questionable testimony. The result is as familiar as the process: The impeachment inquiry, though shaking and whirring loudly, remains stuck in the hyperpartisan muck.
Each new witness—perhaps Bobulinski especially—has undercut the Republican thesis of the probe, leading to general frustration among conservatives. Going under oath and the scrutiny of minority committee members has squeezed the hyperbole and insinuation out of many of Oversight’s witnesses, and Bobulinski was no exception. His claims didn’t hold up very well, and he was forced to acknowledge facts that contradicted his allegations during hostile exchanges with his congressional interviewers.