Bidens vs Congress, Zelenskyy Plea, and Appropriations Countdown (Dec. 9-15)
Welcome everyone to another week of Politics Explained! If you’re new here, we write about the happenings on Capitol Hill in short, concise, and easy to understand blogs. This week there is more division between the Democrats and Republicans and President Joe Biden. The events include an inquiry into impeaching* President Joe Biden, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the looming 12 appropriation bills. Let’s dive right into it!
On Wednesday, the House of Representative voted on a formal inquiry to impeach President Joe Biden by a party line vote of 221-212. Since 2022, Republicans have promised to try and impeach President Biden, in efforts to try and take the presidential seat back. This promise stems from former President Donald Trump urging Republicans to impeach and try and get Biden out of office. The Republicans have said their cause for impeachment comes from President Biden gaining money from his son, Hunter Biden’s scandal. Hunter Biden earlier this week was indicted on 9 charges of tax fraud. They also said that the Biden administration interfered with the Justice Department's investigation of Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden said that he would publicly testify before the Republicans, while the Republicans insist that he should testify behind closed doors. The Republicans leading the inquiries are the Chairman of the Judicial Committee, Jim Jordan (R-OH), and the Chairman of the Oversight Committee, James R. Comer (R-KY). They said that President Biden should be held accountable for his corruption and obstruction. The President fired back, calling the inquiry a “baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts."
Early Tuesday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the White House and spoke with the President, requesting aid for his country in the ongoing war against Russia. The war has gone on for over a year and half. Lately, Ukraine has started to get pummeled by Russian drones and have not had much response to it. As we have stated last week in the blog, Congress has still not passed any legislation to give aid to Ukraine, as Republicans have blocked it without funding to secure the US southern border. The Republicans have stated that they do not think the US should send aid to Ukraine until there is a clear plan for winning the war against Russia. President Zelenskyy also met with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), and with the US Senate, in order to figure out a way for Ukraine to be able to get aid.
Looking ahead, there are only a few days left for Congress to pass appropriations to extend the government funding. So far Congress has passed 3 of the 12 appropriations bills to keep the government running. If we look back to October, we had this same problem when Ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy sided with the Democrats to make a continuing resolution to keep the government running. This resulted in McCarthy getting ousted from being Speaker of the House. The 3 bills that have been passed are agriculture, military/veterans affairs, and transportation. Appropriation bills are legislation that keeps the government running.
*Definition of the Week: It is a charge of wrongdoing against someone who holds office.
