Asymmetry Reigns
The Biden impeachment should be a political loser for Republicans. But it won't be.
Come hang with me, Tim, Bill and guest Noah Smith, tonight on the Thursday Night Bulwark livestream. We’ll gather on Zoom at 8:00pm in the East.
Details here.
1. Impeachment
What’s the elevator pitch for Joe Biden’s impeachment?
Up until this point, you could distill impeachment inquiries into easily-understandable stories:
Nixon: Directed employees to break into the offices of political rivals.
Clinton: Committed perjury.
Trump 1: Threatened to withhold military aid to an ally unless the foreign leader fabricated lies about Trump’s political rival.
Trump 2: Summoned and directed an armed mob to attack the Capitol with the purpose of stopping the Electoral Vote count.
These are what Jerry Bruckheimer would call “high concept” pitches. You understand them immediately. You can see who did what, when, and why it was wrong. They’re the political equivalent of “An asteroid is coming for Earth and Bruce Willis has to stop it.”
Here is the Republican elevator pitch on the impeachment of Joe Biden—and I’m begging you to click through to watch the video because this partial transcript doesn’t do it justice.
Republicans are attempting to impeach Biden for “crimes.” What kind of crimes? High ones.
Can you give us a little more on what, specifically, these crimes are?
And that’s fine. Impeachment is a political process and Republicans have a majority in the House so if they want to impeach the president on general principle, that’s their prerogative.
Surely voters—who have been hugely resistant to impeachment over the last 30 years—will punish Republicans for this nonsense, right?