In his first public comments since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced an impeachment inquiry, President Biden seemed unfazed by the effort and insisted he remains focused on serving the American people.
“Well, I tell you what, I don’t know quite why, but they just knew they wanted to impeach me. And now, the best I can tell, they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government,” he said, referencing Congress’ Sept. 30 deadline to keep the government open.
Rather than being concerned about the impeachment inquiry, which he noted GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia has been calling for since the day she got into office, Biden said he’s focused on his job.
“So look, look, I got a job to do," Biden said. "Everybody always asked about impeachment. I get up every day, not a joke, not focused on impeachment. I’ve got a job to do. I’ve got to deal with the issues that affect the American people every single solitary day.”
While that's the position Biden is taking publicly, behind the scenes the White House Legal Counsel's Office sent a memo calling on major media organizations to "ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies."
The letter, which said an impeachment inquiry with no supporting evidence should “set off alarm bells for news organizations,” was sent to executives helming the nation’s largest news organizations, including CNN, The New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press, CBS News, and others, a White House official familiar with the matter said. [...]
In its letter Wednesday, the White House asked news organizations to be more clear-eyed in their coverage of the impeachment inquiry, and not to fall prey to the traps of false equivalency in reporting.
“Covering impeachment as a process story – Republicans say X, but the White House says Y – is a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable,” Sams wrote.
“And in the modern media environment, where every day liars and hucksters peddle disinformation and lies everywhere from Facebook to Fox, process stories that fail to unpack the illegitimacy of the claims on which House Republicans are basing all their actions only serve to generate confusion, put false premises in people’s feeds, and obscure the truth,” Sams added. (CNN)
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, meanwhile, is referring all impeachment questions to the White House Counsel's office.