Joe Biden has a credibility problem over ‘Garage-Gate’

Just a week ago, Republicans were hanging on the ropes over Kevin McCarthy. But now it is suddenly US President Joe Biden who has to take a beating Something has changed in the Washington Capitol. You can already feel it when you work your way through the labyrinth of underground passages to the plenary hall.

“Yes! We’re open” are now proclaiming red signs – a reference to the alleged new transparency and the abolition of all Corona rules by the new Republican parliamentary majority. An unusual smell of cigars wafts from some of the rooms. The biggest buzz is outside of room 1117, where reporters wait for the most prominent Republican newcomer: George Santos, a fabricator of his origins, his religion, and his entire career. The metal detectors at the entrance to the main chamber of the House of Representatives have been removed. You could now march into the hall with a gun unnoticed. Inside, most of the benches are now empty after the chaotic election marathon a week ago. Undeterred by this, the new speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, is rushing through rules of procedure, legislative initiatives and committees at a dizzying pace.

criticism of the opposition
“On Monday, Republicans introduced legislation designed to help the wealthy cheat on their taxes, supporting the lifestyle of the rich and shameless. A committee was installed on Tuesday to obstruct justice and protect rioters. Am On Wednesday they made it clear that they would do everything they could to enforce a nationwide ban on abortion,” says Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democratic faction, looking back on the first half of the week.

Proving the ability to act and serving the right-wing mobilization issues: These are the maxims of the new, but narrow, right-wing majority. Of course, most of the activities will remain symbolic because the Democratic-dominated Senate and the White House are opposed to each other. There, both a tightening of the abortion law and the drastic budget cuts of the already notoriously underfinanced IRS tax authority should be stopped. The fewer the Republicans manage to implement concrete reforms, the more they rely on their Kulturkampf, which helps to cover up the faction’s substantive differences. The fight against the “Washington swamp”, the destruction of the “left-wing dictatorship of opinion” and the discrediting and impeachment of Joe Biden are high on the right-wing agenda.

With full force
The Republicans are also tough on themselves when it comes to setting up committees of inquiry. Their tasks are clear even before the actual work begins: they are not only supposed to expose the abuses on the border with Mexico and the failure of the Biden government to withdraw from Afghanistan. One committee wants to hold the renowned immunologist Anthony Fauci responsible for the alleged release of the corona virus in a laboratory, while another wants to prove the involvement of Joe Biden in the actually not unproblematic business activities of his son Hunter, who was addicted to drugs at times.

The most dramatic effect, however, is likely to be the committee investigating the alleged political instrumentalization of the judiciary, which is headed by the ardent Trump fan Jim Jordan and has practically unlimited powers. Critics fear a witch hunt like that of the Communist hunter Joe McCarthy during the Cold War. The president himself, of all people, has given his opponents the best ammunition with the “garage affair” about improperly stored classified information. Actually, Biden had a clever plan how he wanted to counter the parliamentary barrage of the right: On the one hand, he strengthened the legal team in the White House and is increasingly going on the offensive with criticism of Trumpists. At the same time he travels through the country and markets the political successes of his investment packages worth billions.