Guilty as Charged, Garland in Contempt, G7 Underway
Hello everyone and welcome back to another week of Politics Explained. We hope all you high school and college kids out there are having a good start to the summer! But if you are new here we write short and concise blogs to help educate the youth about the weekly happenings on Capitol Hill. Also this week we just made our own twitter account so make sure you go follow that. It is linked here. Our final shoutout goes to the MocoShow for being posted on their account. Thank you guys!!! But we have a lot on our plate this week with President Bidens’ son being found guilty, Merrick Garland being held in contempt, and the G7 coming together. Without further ado let’s dive right in!
Earlier this week, Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was found guilty on federal gun charges, which have a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. In 2018 Hunter was buying a gun in a Wilmington gun shop and at the time many prosecutors made him a very big drug addict addicted to crack cocaine. When he bought the gun, he checked a box that stated he was not a drug addict and did not use illegal drugs. He held the gun for 11 days before Hunter's brother's widow found the gun and threw it out. Many Republicans have found this case as a major blow to one of Donald Trump’s most liked talking points. President Biden, who said in an earlier statement that he would consider pardoning Hunter, now stated he will not pardon Hunter. Former President Trump has stated that this whole ordeal with Hunter Biden stems from President Joe Biden. This is the latest on the back-and-forth between Biden and Trump, so stay tuned for more to come!
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress by a vote of basically party-line vote of 216-207. Garland became the 3rd Attorney General to be held in contempt and the 4th sitting cabinet member to be held in contempt. Only one Republican sided with the Democrats, Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) who said, “As a former prosecutor, I cannot in good conscience support a resolution that would further politicize our judicial system to score political points.” This will now go to the Justice Department to decide whether this case should be prosecuted criminally. Since a Democratic Administration currently controls the Justice Department, this will not move forward.
Lastly, President Joe Biden went to the annual G7* Summit in Italy, which brings the leaders of the US, Canada, France, the UK, Italy, Germany and Japan together to discuss policy issues. President Biden agreed to a 10-year security pact with Ukraine this year at the summit. The US and the EU promised a $50 billion loan to Ukraine. The money would be used to help rebuild Ukraine, with that being building power plants, purchasing weapons to defend themselves, or rebuilding destroyed ports.
Definition of the week (G7): The Group of Seven is an intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States; also, the European Union is a "non-enumerated member"
