Michael Shannon, a political commentator and Newsmax columnist, believes that the tit-for-tat measure launched by Greene stands no chance in a Democrat-controlled House.
Sputnik: Rep. Marjorie Greene has filed articles of impeachment against President Biden for abuse of power and corruption. How successful can Rep. Greene be in her efforts? Will she gain support from other Republican representatives?
Michael Shannon: I think this impeachment bill is better than Ivanka’s chances for a Florida Senate seat. Greene has a couple of problems. One is, bless her heart, she's a connoisseur of conspiracy theories and she generates an almost Trump-like level of rage among her opponents. In fact, she's one of the few politicians where it would probably help her career if she decided to be a backbencher. First of all, in a Democrat-controlled House, her bill is going no place. And then also the leadership in the House - the GOP leadership in the House - also is continually criticising her. The interesting thing about this impeachment - first of all, it's tit for tat.
It shows the Democrats that Republicans can file frivolous impeachment bills just as quickly as they can.
But as I said earlier, since the Democrats control the House, it's not going anywhere.
The other interesting thing is - I was always worried about the Hunter Biden laptop story because I feared that if those stories didn't cause Biden to lose the election, then after the election, the Harris people - Kamala Harris people - could use that to start an investigation to get him out of the presidency and promote her from the vice-presidency, which for conservatives would be the worst of all worlds. Now Greene, being a Republican, complicates this.
I would be just amazed if Democrats jumped on this bill - Kamala Harris Democrats jumped on this bill - in an effort to get Biden out of the Oval Office. So I don't think that's going to happen. I don't think it's going to go anyplace. I think Greene thought she needed some publicity. She filed a bill and went on Twitter to announce it.
Sputnik: Will the on-going federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China progress now that his father has assumed office?
Michael Shannon: I think it will get a decent Christian burial just as soon as people stop thinking about it - that's not going any place. The Durham investigation is going to be quietly buried and they're going to get away with it because the news media won't follow up on it.
Sputnik: Will the Democratic establishment defend the President from these accusations?
Michael Shannon: Yes. And now in the Democratic establishment we must also include the news media, major donors, big tech, most of the publishing industry and all, for all intents and purposes, all of higher education.
Sputnik: Do you think that they will continue to hurt the new President through his term?
Michael Shannon: I hope there will be legal battles. The term for that - and I don't remember if it was Daniel Pipes that coined it – was lawfare. That's where you use the legal system to conduct war on your opponent. And I do hope that conservatives will do that. Now, the country club conservatives we have in the Senate and the House probably aren't going to do it. I'm hoping that Republican governors, people like Ron DeSantis and Kristi Noem will start filing suits against Biden over these executive orders, these royal edicts that he's been issuing. But I don't expect much out of the morally corrupt and irrelevant Washington, DC Republican Party.
Sputnik: How would you assess the current split within the GOP? Because we're currently seeing the establishment following their own line and Donald Trump's supporters talking about creating a new party. How would you assess the future of the GOP?
Michael Shannon: I would love to see a new party. I used to think that we can beat these people in the primary, but we can't. There's no money in it. Conservatives don't have a George Soros. The conservative donors are all very transactional. The Koch brothers give money because they want their pipelines protected and they don't want any immigration bills passed because they like cheap imported labour. And Sheldon Adelson, who just recently died, was a big GOP donor - but very transactional. He wanted support for Israel and he wanted to have his hotels in the States protected and to introduce gambling wherever he could. He had no interest in base conservative issues.
So if you don't have a way to beat him in the primary - because you can't raise any money - you need to start your own party. I wrote a column back a few weeks ago that said, I hope the January runoff is the last time that Republicans, the last time that conservatives will be forced to vote for Republicans because there's no other choice. So I'm all for the new party. And that being said, if it's a new party that is a vehicle to get Ivanka elected to anything and that includes dogcatcher, I'm opposed to it. I'm down on the dynasties.
The new party can’t be a Trump dynasty party.
Sputnik: So there should be some new Republican face leading this party?
Michael Shannon: Yes. I would prefer someone new because Trump listens too much to Jared and Ivanka and neither of them are Republicans and both of them dislike Trump voters like me.
Trump's time in the sun has passed and he needs to step aside.
He can fund this party. He can recommend candidates to the party. He can endorse candidates for the party. But I don't think he should run it.
Sputnik: But who can be this new face?
Michael Shannon: That's the problem. The Republicans who you think might have a chance, like Ron de Santis has been a very good governor of Florida, but why would he want to leave a Republican Party that’s elected him? Economists talk about opportunity costs, and that's the risk you take when you do something new. That's a tremendous opportunity cost for him. So I think it's going to have to be a congressman or someone that's outside of politics like Trump was. Or a Republican that renounces the party and has a high enough personal profile that he can be elected running on this new party label.
