Biden’s White House is planning to send a letter to some of the country’s most prominent news organizations — including CNN, The New York Times, and Fox News — urging them to “ramp up their scrutiny” of House Republicans “for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ordered an impeachment inquiry into the president’s alleged involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals on Tuesday.
“Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings,” the speaker charged, claiming “these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.”
In a draft letter to news executives obtained by CNN Tuesday, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, said the inquiry has no supporting evidence, which “should set off alarm bells for news organizations.”
However, the missive has raised eyebrows over concerns about the White House dictating editorial direction.
“This is not OK,” journalist Matthew Keys tweeted. “The White House should not be encouraging, influencing or interfering in the editorial strategies of America’s newsrooms, including CNN and the New York Times.”
He continued, “Now, any time the media DOES try to hold Republican lawmakers to account, those lawmakers can simply counter by questioning whether it’s actual journalism or something encouraged by the Biden administration.
“All this demonstrates is that the Biden administration has lost confidence in the news media – which I guess mirrors public sentiment over the last few years, too.”
Sams is expected to send the letter to executives at CNN, the New York Times, Fox News, the Associated Press and CBS News, a White House source told CNN.
“The problem is they’re trying to influence coverage,” Keys concluded. “The government should never do that. It is inappropriate.
In the draft letter to news executives, Sams will ask the news executives to not fall prey to the notion of false equivalency.
“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.
“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 had earlier tweeted on Tuesday: “Will anyone ask Speaker McCarthy *why* an impeachment inquiry is the “next logical step?”
“The House GOP investigations have turned up no evidence of wrongdoing by POTUS. In fact, their own witnesses have testified to that, and their own documents have showed no link to POTUS,” he claimed.
“Opening impeachment despite zero evidence of wrongdoing by POTUS is simply red meat for the extreme rightwing so they can keep baselessly attacking him,” Sams said.
Biden has repeatedly claimed he never spoke with his son Hunter or brother James about their foreign ventures, and House Democrats also argue that the Republican investigation into the Biden family has failed to turn up any evidence that would warrant a formal impeachment.