Democrat Rep. Jaime Raskin (D-MD) has been “quietly” meeting with Republicans and urging some of his more moderate GOP colleagues to abandon the effort to impeach President Joe Biden.
Though it had largely faded from the headlines in recent months, House Republicans have continued to press forward with their impeachment inquiry against Biden.
House Democrats are pushing back, however.
Raskin, the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, is working behind the scenes to lobby Republicans to forget about holding Biden accountable for prior alleged misdeeds, according to Fox News.
The effort also reportedly includes House Democrats issuing memos that purportedly debunk or refute the alleged evidence of Biden’s wrongdoing.
The move comes while the Republican-led House Rules Committee is set to formalize the impeachment inquiry with a full vote by all members on the House floor.
Fox News reported that, according to multiple unnamed sources on Capitol Hill, Raskin has been quietly attempting to dissuade some of his Republican colleagues from supporting the impeachment inquiry against Biden.
He is reportedly getting together with “right-wing to more moderate members,” particularly those with whom he’s developed “close relationships,” to provide counterarguments to the evidence and facts that have been collected thus far by the House GOP investigation.
While it is unclear what, if any, success Raskin has had in that effort, the sources also told Fox News that some House Republicans have increasingly become “especially receptive to seeing the Administration’s record of cooperation with investigators.”
At the same time that Rep. Raskin is reportedly holding these quiet meetings with his Republican colleagues, House Oversight Democrats have more overtly pushed back against the impeachment inquiry with the release of a series of memos that purportedly refute the “distorted and cherry-picked facts and long-debunked conspiracy theories” pushed by GOP investigators.
Separate Democratic memos address topics like GOP claims of White House obstruction, Hunter Biden’s seat on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, the supposed personal loans and repayments between President Biden and his brother James, and other matters about Biden family business deals that Republicans have questioned.
“These fact sheets are a hat in hand, fact-based appeal to House Republicans,” an unnamed senior House Democratic aide told Fox News of the memos.
“Republicans may not be getting all of the facts from [Republican Oversight Committee Chairman James] Comer, so we are making sure that they have the full picture as they decide whether to endorse this impeachment effort.”
However, Chairman Comer (R-KY), who has been leading the ongoing inquiry, has pushed back against the Democrat memos and insinuations against him.
Comer told the outlet how it was “ironic Democrats continue to say there is no evidence and then at every turn seek to prevent the Oversight Committee from gathering evidence.”
“Despite Democrats’ best efforts, the House Oversight Committee has produced evidence revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and benefited from his family cashing in on the Biden last name,” he added.
“We will continue to follow the facts and hold this president accountable for his corruption.”
Meanwhile, amid that ongoing counter-effort from Democrats, NewsNation reported that House Republicans are on the verge of making the impeachment inquiry official after it was initially launched months ago by ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
That entails a meeting and vote scheduled for Tuesday in the House Rules Committee to formalize the impeachment inquiry with a vote on the House floor that could be held as soon as next week.
Chairman Comer told the outlet:
“Abbe Lowell, Joe Biden’s attorney, implied in a letter this wasn’t a legitimate impeachment inquiry because it hadn’t been voted on.
“Well, we’re going to check that box.”
