Sen. Ron Johnson has openly admitted he is using taxpayer money and a Congressional committee for nakedly partisan political purposes: to both derail Joe Biden’s candidacy and as “tit for tat” over Donald Trump’s impeachment.
On Saturday, Politico’s national security correspondent, Natasha Bertrand, explained on MSNBC that Russian disinformation is being mainstreamed and legitimized by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which Johnson chairs. Disinformation from people like Andriy Derkach, who has been designated as an “active Russian agent” by the U.S. Treasury Department, is being “funneled” to Homeland Security which is investigating Biden. The committee plans to release a report before the election.
Now Johnson has pulled a Kevin McCarthy and admitted the partisan purpose of this use of public resources.
The Atlantic’s Edward-Isaac Dovere has the deets. But the main takeaways are that 1) this investigation purports to be concerned with Biden's conduct as vice president, which ended in early 2017, but the investigation only began when Biden looked like he’d win the Democratic presidential nomination, in 2020 . Its report is now being rushed for pre-election release. Also, 2) Johnson has said publicly, “what our investigations are uncovering, I think, will reveal this is not somebody we should be electing president." He also revealed it's tit for tat for Trump's impeachment.
Fourth, Dovere notes that the committee has said it isn’t using sources tied to Russian intel. But is it using information Rudy Giuliani or other Trump cronies got from those sources? According to Bertrand, Rudy Giuliani, who met with Derkach, is submitting his own report to Congress.
This investigation is meant to be a retrospective look into Biden's conduct as vice president - but Johnson is saying that it's about whether Biden would be a good president.
In other words, a Senate committee is being deployed as a force in the presidential race. https://t.co/vvAJgrZ6TR— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 14, 2020
yesterday--see thread--Ron Johnson said his Senate committee investigation into Biden was in fact political.
Not a slip. Today on Wisconsin radio, he said: "what our investigations are uncovering, I think, will reveal this is not somebody we should be electing president" https://t.co/b0nNp6hHBa— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 15, 2020
Johnson's comments here: https://t.co/fxDRgiGPxr. Says this is tit-for-tat for Trump's impeachment.
Importantly, this is an investigation into Biden's conduct as VP that ended 4 years ago, but only began when Biden started winning primaries, and is being rushed for pre-election.— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 15, 2020
