James Comer’s Biden Impeachment Crusade Finally Ends With a Whimper

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again … and make criminal referrals, apparently.

Republican Representatives Jim Comer, Jim Jordan, and Jason Smith have finally concluded their juiceless push to impeach Joe Biden after providing no evidence of wrongdoing by the president and failing to drum up support in their own party. Their final product: referrals for prosecution for James and Hunter Biden for allegedly lying to Congress, a disappointing payoff for Republicans, given the “smoking gun” Comer promised to deliver.

“These false statements implicate Joe Biden’s knowledge of and role in his family’s influence peddling schemes and appear to be a calculated effort to shield Joe Biden from the impeachment inquiry,” a tweet announcing the referrals said.

Screenshot of a tweet

The tortured logic on display is representative of the GOP’s half-hearted attempt to impeach Biden, which, after a disastrous House Oversight Committee hearing failed to turn up convincing evidence against the president, culminated in a resigned Comer admitting that Republicans did not have the votes to pass articles of impeachment. In March, Comer, lacking support from his own caucus, announced that he had begun preparing criminal referrals to send to the Department of Justice. Now, the referrals are here—and they represent an embarrassing anticlimax for House Republicans.

As Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, now a convicted felon, faces his own legal troubles, GOP accusations of a “Biden Crime Family” aren’t likely to land.