Will Smirnov-Gate Be The Undoing Of The Trump-Compliant Republicans In Congress?

GOP House Members Have Been Too Submissive To Trump

Susan Glasser termed it the flop of a big Russian Intelligence Op. Glasser wrote that the flop “effectively put an end to one of Donald Trump’s great election year hopes, the impeachment of President Joe Biden.” Smirnov was “their smoking gun, their white whale, the only concrete example they had managed to turn up with a specific person attesting to an actual criminal act on the part of the president.” But even when they were pushing it out into the media, Gym Jordan, Chuck Grassley and James Comer— and how many other Republicans?— knew it was false and knew it had originated in Russia. Sean Hannity mentioned it in 85 segments last year. That was what Trump, the House Republicans and Russian intelligence were looking for, not impeachment per se. Hannity told his zombie audience “that Biden had been very credibly accused of public corruption on a scale this country had never seen before.”

“It was perhaps,” continued Glasser, “no surprise that the House Republicans’ fever dream of impeachment would evaporate. Their revenge play on behalf of the twice-impeached ex-President always seemed more about payback and partisan politics than anything else. Since taking back the House and launching their probe of Biden last year, they have publicly struggled to find any crime— never mind the requisite high crimes and misdemeanors— to fit the preordained punishment. In the course of their shambolic inquiry, many theories of malfeasance by the President had been advanced, from alleged nefarious doings with China, Kazakhstan, Romania, and other countries to Biden’s alleged money laundering on behalf of his brother. But even the probe’s deepest skeptics could not have imagined this latest twist: a fake Ukrainian bribe, seemingly ordered up to fit the Republicans’ darkest fantasies of Biden, and passed along by a source who would eventually admit to spreading lies given to him by Russian spies.”

Despite immense amounts of money wasted by Jordan's and Comer's partisan investigations, there was never any evidence this was true, but, on a party line vote, the House Republicans decided to use it to justify opening formal impeachment proceedings against the president of the United States— just as the Kremlin, Mar-a-Lago and Fox News wanted. Damage done! Jordan is, disgracefully, still defending the Russian lies against his country.

I expect the Smirnov-Gate blowback is not going to harm Jordan or Comer. They are in, respectively, R+40 and R+43 partisan lean districts, filled with functionally illiterate Trump voters. But you know who it will damage? Republican idiots who went along for the Russian ride and where the swing voters are not functionally illiterate:

• John Duarte (CA)- D+7

• David Valadao (CA)- D+10

• Mike Garcia (CA)- D+8

• Michelle Steel (CA)- D+5

• Young Kim (CA)- R+4

• Ken Calvert (CA)- R+7

• Maria Salazar (FL)- D+1

• Carlos Gimenez (FL)- R+4

• Zach Nunn (IA)- R+2

• Marianette Miller-Meeks (IA)-R+4

• Ashley Hinson (IA)- R+6

• John James (MI)- R+6

• Bill Huizenga (MI)- R+9

• Don Bacon (NE)- R+3

• Tom Kean (NJ)- R+3

• Jeff Van Drew (NJ)- R+9

• Brandon Williams (NY)- D+2

• Marc Molinaro (NY)- R+1

• Mike Lawler (NY)- D+7

• Nick LaLota (NY)- R+5

• Andrew Garbarino (NY)- R+7

• Anthony D’Esposito (NY)- D+10

• Mike Turner (OH)- R+8

• Lori Chavez DeRemer (OR)- D+3

• Brian Fitzpatrick (PA)- even

• Scott Perry (PA)- R+9

• Monica De La Cruz (TX)- even

• Jen Kiggans (VA)- R+6

• Bryan Steil (WI)- R+6

• Derrick Van Orden (WI)- R+9

Before sunrise yesterday, Jordain Carney reported that the Republicans’ “push to impeach Joe Biden appears close to stalling out for good… ‘I happen to know there are like 20 Republicans who are not in favor of a Biden impeachment. Mainly because it smells bad what he did, it looks bad, but when you ask them what crime is committed— they can’t tell you,’ said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE), a vulnerable purple-district incumbent who’d raised doubts about impeaching Mayorkas but eventually backed that effort. Bacon estimated that as many as 30 House GOP lawmakers may be currently opposed to impeaching the president because they haven’t seen evidence of any crime. Private briefings to update members on the investigation haven’t swayed those holdouts, and Republicans know it only gets politically riskier to try to impeach Biden as they head deeper into an election year— possibly giving the president a polling boost even if they succeed.”

According to a 2020 FBI document, Smirnov recounted what he characterized as a conversation with Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of the Ukraine energy company Burisma, whom he alleged claimed to have paid Hunter Biden and Joe Biden a bribe— an allegation that was fabricated, per a recent DOJ court filing.

After the new details about Smirnov emerged, Republican investigators started distancing their probe from his initial accusations. That included deleting references to the FBI document from a letter they sent this week requesting an interview with a White House staffer.

Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) asserted to reporters that “it doesn’t change the fundamental facts.” And Comer, in a statement after Smirnov was indicted, said that the inquiry “is not reliant” on the FBI’s 2020 document summarizing Smirnov’s allegations.

“We will continue to follow the facts to propose legislation to reform federal ethics laws and to determine whether articles of impeachment are warranted,” Comer added.

…Some lawmakers who eventually relented and agreed to impeach Mayorkas are warning that GOP leaders shouldn’t necessarily bet they’ll make the same flip on Biden.

“They’re two separate cases,” Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) said in a brief interview. When it comes to the Biden impeachment effort, he added, “I’ve not seen any evidence. I’ve heard a lot of accusations.”

As more details on Smirnov-Gate drip out, one thing is clear... MAGA Republicans in Congress seem to think protecting Trump from justice is more important than protecting the United States of America from Putin. And it isn't just the pea-brained imbeciles like Marjorie Traitor Greene, Clay Higgins, Andy Ogles, Tommy Tuberville, Paul Gosar, Ralph Norman, Troy Nehls and Lauren Boebert who have been the useful idiots! MAGA Mike and Elise Stefanik have led their conference down the wrong path... and there are too few members who understand how to employ even basic critical thinking to situations as clear as, for example, Russian agents planting propaganda and disinformation through Trump symps like Jordan.