Trump taunts ‘Crooked Joe’ over Biden impeachment report

Former President Donald Trump used a campaign event on Monday to taunt President Joe Biden over House Republicans’ final impeachment report into corruption allegations.

The nearly 300-page report from a trio of House committees stopped short of calling for Biden’s impeachment over an alleged influence-peddling scheme by the Biden family and their associates but concluded he committed impeachable conduct, including abuse of power. The White House has long denounced the investigation as politically motivated and denies the allegations.

“While Biden and [Vice President Kamala Harris] have been impoverishing our country, they have been getting rich — very rich — at your expense,” Trump said in winding remarks about the news at a campaign stop in battleground Pennsylvania. “They don’t call him ‘Crooked Joe’ for no reason. They said President Biden engaged in impeachable conduct and said he abused his office and defrauded the United States of America to enrich his family.”

Trump’s appearance in York at a machining manufacturer, where he primarily spoke about the economy and energy, is part of a weeklong campaign blitz to counterprogram the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that kicks of Monday evening and will include a speech from Biden.

Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), campaigned earlier in the day in north Philadelphia.

The impeachment report, which caps off a yearlong investigation conducted by the Oversight, Ways and Means, and Judiciary committees, determined that Biden’s family and business associates raked in more than $27 million through foreign business deals in recent years. But it faced a series of setbacks, including the indictment of an FBI informant central to their inquiry.

Although not recommending the House vote on impeachment, the panels said their impeachment inquiry would continue and that the decision to move forward with a vote “must not be made lightly.”

“As such, this report endeavors to present the evidence gathered to date so that all Members of the House may assess the extent of President Biden’s corruption,” the committees wrote.

The White House denounced the report as a “failed stunt.”

“House Republicans have finally given up on their wild goose chase,” Sharon Yang, the White House spokeswoman for oversight investigations, said in a statement. “This failed stunt will only be remembered for how it became an embarrassment that their own members distanced themselves from as they only managed to turn up evidence that refuted their false and baseless conspiracy theories.”

Trump, who himself was twice impeached by the House but later acquitted by the Senate, capitalized on its accusations Biden committed impeachable acts and suggested unnamed Democratic senators were accomplices.

“There’s no way someone could have stolen that much money without Democrat senators knowing what was going on. He wined and dined them at Joe’s houses. They saw his boats. They saw the way he lived. They saw his beautiful mansions,” Trump said. “I would have made billions of dollars in this job if I wanted to play that game the way they played it. But instead, I took the job very seriously and very importantly.”

In remarks that lasted just under 20 minutes, Trump largely stuck to his script about policy differences with Biden and Harris. But he still managed to insert some jabs against Harris, whom he’s increasingly referring to as “Comrade Kamala” to associate her with what he describes as her “radical” agenda.

“Pennsylvania is going to tell her that we’ve had enough, that we can’t take it anymore. And, Comrade Kamala Harris, you’re fired,” Trump said. “Get out. You’re not doing the job. Get out. You’re fired.”