This is what Rep. Stefanik did on her summer vacation

By Ken Tingley

if you were wondering what Rep. Elise Stefanik do on her summer vacation, here it is.

According to New York Times reporters Jonathan Swan, Maggie Haberman and Alyce McFadden, she’s been briefing former President Donald Trump weekly about the strategy to impeach President Joe Biden.

Yes, it was an unnamed source - I think all media outlets would be better served not using unnamed sources in political stories - but more often than not, the information tends to be factual. And these Times reporters usually have pretty good sources.

The Times reported “the former president thanked Ms. Stefanik for publicly backing the impeachment inquiry in July,” and then talked to Trump again on Tuesday after Speaker Kevin McCarthy ordered an official impeachment inquiry.

Stefanik was the first member of the Republican leadership in the House to call for the impeachment inquiry and told North Country Public Radio that she believes the investigation “will prove to be the biggest political corruption and criminal scandal in our nation’s history.”

I guess that means President Biden would have to be indicted at least five times.

While there was significant evidence to impeach Trump, first on a phone call where he tried to get Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to get dirt on his political opponent (Biden), and then after he repeatedly tried to overturn election results with false charges that the election had been stolen leading to the events on Jan. 6.

We all were witnesses to that.

What Stefanik has neglected to detail is the evidence supporting the “biggest political scandal” in history. It may be the greatest political secret in the history of Washington politics.

The worst of it was laid out by U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney on Wednesday after he announced he would not run for re-election in 2024.

“There hasn’t been any allegation yet, any conduct which reaches the constitutional standard for impeachment,” Romney told The Hill. “Clearly the fact that Hunter Biden was running around, if you will, shaking people down by virtue of his relationship with his father opens a question that President Biden could have avoided had he done a better job circumscribing the conduct of his son.”

That’s the worst of it.

I suppose we are all guilty of not dong a better job of circumscribing the conduct of our children.

But that’s not criminal.

And it’s not impeachable.

When not criticizing Biden, Stefanik has regularly endorsed a Republican committee investigating “weaponizing” investigations by the government, yet she seems oblivious to the actions of her party and herself in coordinating the actions of the Republican House members with Trump to get Biden.

For instance, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed articles of impeachment on the day after President Biden was inaugurated, but did not specify the impeachable offenses. You have to wonder how much trouble you could get in the first 24 hours as president.

Rep. Greene, who dined with Trump at his Bedminster golf club on Sunday, told the Times that she had briefed him on the impeachment strategy of Biden. That was two days before Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to move forward with a formal inquiry without evidence.

This appears to be a sitting congresswoman weaponizing government.

The Freedom Caucus in the House, which includes Greene, has refused to vote for a critical spending bills unless the impeachment inquiry went forward.

Some would call that blackmail.

Others weaponizing their position.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), speaking on MSNBC, said, “The time for impeachment is the time when there’s evidence linking President Biden - if there’s evidence linking President Biden - to a high crime or misdemeanor. That doesn’t exist right now.”

And that was from a Republican.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is a member of the Senate GOP leadership, was asked if there was enough evidence to impeach Biden. She replied, “I do not.”

Sen Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) warned that impeachment could become routine and that Democrats were to blame for impeaching Trump twice. Rubio failed to mention that information gleaned from the Jan. 6 Committee report has led to the election interference indictments against Trump in Georgia.

Since Republicans started investigating Biden and his son, Republicans in the House have reviewed 12,000 pages of bank records, 2,000 suspicious activity reports and interviewed two of Hunter Biden’s business partners without revealing any specific transgressions.

Yet, Rep. Stefanik believes President Biden is involved in a monumental criminal conspiracy.

Perhaps, her time could be better spent solving more significant issues facing the people in her own district.

I guess we all should be thankful she is not a criminal prosecutor in her district.