Although some G.O.P. lawmakers see the appointment of David C. Weiss as a vindication of their strategy, others criticize the now-scuttled plea deal he struck with Mr. Biden.

Congressional Republicans have for months repeatedly written to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland demanding he appoint a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, the president’s son, over his business dealings.

Some even demanded that a specific man be named to lead the inquiry: David C. Weiss, the Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. attorney who has long investigated the case.

But on Friday, after Mr. Garland elevated Mr. Weiss to special counsel status, Republicans in Congress reacted publicly not with triumph, but with outrage. “David Weiss can’t be trusted and this is just a new way to whitewash the Biden family’s corruption,” Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The reaction was a notable political development, one that underscored both how Mr. Weiss, a Republican, has fallen in conservative circles, and how deeply it has become ingrained in the G.O.P. to oppose the Justice Department at every turn.

“The reality is this appointment is meant to distract from, and slow down, our investigations,” said Representative Jason Smith, Republican of Missouri and chairman of Ways and Means, one of three congressional committees looking into the Biden family’s finances.

…

Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who had once called for Mr. Weiss to be made special counsel, said he no longer stands by that belief. “Given the underhanded plea deal negotiated by the U.S. attorney from President Biden’s home state, it’s clear Mr. Weiss isn’t the right person for the job,” Mr. Grassley said.

But Democrat-aligned groups saw something else in the Republicans’ about-face: disingenuousness.

“House Republicans’ opposition to Trump appointee David Weiss’s appointment as special counsel is nothing more than another political stunt,” said Kyle Herrig, the director of the Congressional Integrity Project, an advocacy group that defends President Biden from congressional investigations. “After months of calling for this, their dismay makes clear that they will stop at nothing to weaponize Congress to interfere with an ongoing investigation and harm Joe Biden.”

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
    1161·
    1 year ago

    They never wanted one, they wanted the lack of one as a political talking point. They know the special counsel is unlikely to discover anything beyond what we already know about him.

    • admiralteal@kbin.social
      47·
      1 year ago

      There is only one outcome the GOP would find satisfactory in all this: finding President Biden guilty of some crime, impeaching him, throwing him in jail, and making Trump president for life. They don’t actually give one molecule of a shit about Hunter, when push comes to shove.

      No other outcome would be satisfactory and any outcome OTHER than that outcome must somehow be working against their agenda.

      All evidence we have seen suggests that Joe has acted properly even if Hunter didn’t. All evidence we have seen suggests that all the investigations against Hunter have been impartial and reasonable and that everyone has cooperated above and beyond any legal requirement to do so.

      All the braying and whining out of conservatives is only to serve the agenda of giving them power. Any interpretation that they have reasonable concerns is ridiculous. The appointment of this special council can be completely explained and justified by the desire of progressives to see a fair and impartial process happen, even knowing it is actually impossible to satisfy the prejudiced conservatives of such. Looking at it through a lens of how it should or shouldn’t make conservatives happy is a waste of time; they won’t be happy and they consistently behave so unreasonably that their opinions no longer matter.

        • Unaware7013@kbin.social
          211·
          1 year ago

          Don’t short sell them friend, they accomplished what they set out to do decades ago. They just also now lost control of their electorate, so the brains of the party don’t have much to do with where the party is going now.

          Like the other person said, I don’t think the brains of the party actually wanted the win, they just became the dog that caught the car and now are entirely lost trying to figure out how they’re really the victim in the situation they created.

    • trias10@lemmy.worldEnglish
      220·
      1 year ago

      I’m not sure. They definitely wanted one, but after that ridiculous plea deal which Weiss got, it’s clear he’s an absolute weasel and company man after all, and this is coming from a hardcore Sanders democrat. That plea deal was insanity – a misdemeanor for lying blatantly about drugs on a federal firearms transfer? And not paying taxes? Imagine if those charges were leveled against an ordinary person, and not a member of the ruling elite.

      There needs to be a special counsel appointed, but fuck this Weiss guy.

  • Jordan Lund@lemmy.oneEnglish
    56·
    1 year ago

    Because they don’t ACTUALLY want an investigation, or facts, or god forbid an exoneration.

    They just want to keep talking nonsense until the election. It’s Benghazi all over again.

    • whereisk@lemmy.world
      6·
      1 year ago

      They saw what happened when they got their way with abortion.

      They don’t want the noise, not the signal.

  • TheRealTurducken@lemmy.world
    561·
    1 year ago

    I am so confused why a federal special counsel is being appointed to investigate a guy who is not an elected official. Is it really just because his dad is president, and that’s it? That’s the bar? Why isn’t this just being investigated in the normal justice channels?

    • blanketswithsmallpox@kbin.social
      282·
      1 year ago

      Yes, because his dad is a political leader. There are a bunch of laws that restrict the direct family of elected officials from doing a lot of things.

      Also yes, it’s because it’s a Democrat President and Republicans need to scream Boogeyman at the top of their lungs no matter how ludicrous the claims. Because no small section of their voting base ends up smoking it to get high off outrage. Like a meth head getting out of rehab, every time.

      • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world
        191·
        1 year ago

        Laws really don’t mean jack shit to the party of “law and order”, especially after the literal orange crime syndicate family we had in office for four years. It’s just a tool for them to try to get their way.

      • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        There are a bunch of laws that restrict the direct family of elected officials from doing a lot of things

        Didn’t stop Ivanka or Jared or the rest of Team Orange.

  • Nougat@kbin.social
    39·
    1 year ago

    This makes perfect sense when you start from the premise that “everything a Democrat does is wrong.” Merrick Garland, AG under the Biden administration (even though there is a strong separation between the Justice Dept and the rest of the executive branch), and Obama’s SCOTUS nominee (even though he was blocked by McConnell), made the appointment. Therefore, the appointment is wrong.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
      33·
      1 year ago

      Remember when Orrin Hatch said that Obama didn’t have the guts to nominate “well-respected” Merrick Garland to replace Scalia? And when Obama nominated Garland, Republicans started calling him a far-left extremist?

      This is just that, all over again.

    • BrooklynMan@lemmy.mlEnglish
      24·
      1 year ago

      it makes sense when you start from the premise that republicans are self-serving liars and bullies who will claim victimhood no matter the circumstances in an attempt to villainize their opponents against whom they have no real, substantive arguments.

      hell, even in 2016, when Trump won the election, he still claimed that it was rigged!

    • jscummy@sh.itjust.works
      111·
      1 year ago

      They also can’t complain about him not having special counsel status any more. It hurts the sideshow they want to kick up in the media.

      Even more important, they now know that this investigation will probably be handled quickly and uneventfully, undermining everything they’ve been squawking about for the past couple years.

    • LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world
      9·
      1 year ago

      Republicans want to forget how “AG” Barr destroyed all norms for judicial impartiality and blatantly acted as djt’s personal lawyer - at times even protecting him from financial burden from all the lawsuits at the expense of taxpayers footing the bill.

      Republicans have no leg to stand on and call Merrick Garland to be partial in any way. All republicans are doing is further proving they are so full of shit.

  • Orphie Baby@lemmy.worldEnglish
    38·
    1 year ago

    But Democrat-aligned groups saw something else in the Republicans’ about-face: disingenuousness.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
    101·
    1 year ago

    This is just their politics backfiring further. They’re trying to run the 90s playbook they ran in the Clinton’s, and in the same way the Dems fail to understand the electorate by running conservatives, the Republicans fail to understand their electorate here. Any Republican convinced by anything that comes from this didn’t need this to be convinced of anything because they already believe a bunch of other dumb shit nonsense about Biden. No Democrat worth carrying about in a general will pay this any mind. So some edge Republicans who might be swayed to vote Democrat will be annoyed by more trash politics from the Republicans.

    They have no policies. Only whatever ‘this’ is. The more they show it off, the more it works against them.

  • PretentiousDouche@lemmy.sdf.org
    81·
    1 year ago

    I love this. I tuned in to a little Sean Hannity on the radio on my drive home Friday and heard him rail against the selection of Weiss multiple times, while throwing out vague bullet points about why he’s unacceptable.

    My first reaction was that they’re laying the groundwork for when this investigation comes up with nothing, or some really boring crimes (like firearms charges? The Republicans are about gun control now?) and they have to lay the blame on someone so the conspiracy machine can keep pumping out outrage.

    Knowing this is a guy they wanted for the job until he started doing it makes it even more delicious, but as we know when Republican’s beliefs come up against reality it’s the reality that gives, so they’ll have no problem ignoring that this was even ever a thing.