Biden impeachment 'extension of, not separate from' Trump’s attempted Jan. 6 coup: report

Three years after the January 6, 2021 insurrection, pro-Donald Trump Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are railing against the four criminal indictments that Trump is facing while they pursue an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-New York), Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) and other Trump allies have been defending Trump passionately while arguing that a thorough investigation of President Biden and his son Hunter Biden is badly needed.

To Trump critics, however, this is a distraction — an example of running interference for Trump while grasping at straws with the Bidens.

According to a new report by the Congressional Integrity Project, "The key players involved in Trump's scheme to overturn the election in 2020 are the very same Republicans leading the bogus impeachment effort against President Biden."

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The Guardian has obtained a copy of the report, which quotes Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) as saying, "They still want to overturn the election. What they couldn't do on January 6th they're trying to do with this process."

The Guardian's David Smith notes that the report "argues that scores of Trump loyalists in the House of Representatives have continued to push the former president's election lies and are ready to go further in a bid to put him back in the White House."

Those loyalists, according to the report, include Johnson, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Kentucky) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — all of whom, Smith observes, "continue to push Trump's debunked conspiracy theories and wage a crusade to impeach Biden."

The Congressional Integrity Project's report slams the impeachment inquiry against President Biden as a "partisan political stunt" that is "an extension of, not separate from, the events of January 6, 2021."

READ MORE: Michigan elections chief: 'Direct line' between Trump’s Detroit call and January 6 riot

"The report highlights the role of Johnson, who was elected speaker in October to replace the ousted Kevin McCarthy and has supported an impeachment inquiry for months," Smith explains. "After the 2020 election, he said the outcome had been 'rigged' and amplified Trump's baseless conspiracy theories about Dominion voting machines."

Smith adds, "Johnson stayed in close contact with Trump and publicly encouraged him to 'stay strong and keep fighting.' He pressured Republican colleagues to support a Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn the election on the unconstitutional premise that the expansion of vote by mail during the pandemic had been illegal, and he managed to collect signatures from more than 60 percent of House Republicans."

READ MORE: 'Hungry for revenge': Republicans say Biden impeachment 'not good for the country'

Read The Guardian's full report at this link.