Thread by @HeidiReports

JUST IN: White House Issues Memo to U.S. Media Leaders

"It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies."

Impeachment is grave, rare, and historic. The Constitution requires “treason, bribery, or other high

crimes and misdemeanors.”
But House Republicans are publicly stating they have uncovered none of these things.

"After nearly 9 months of investigating, House Republicans haven’t been able to turn up any evidence of the President doing anything wrong."

The memo goes on to quote numerous Republicans stating there is no evidence to impeach.

Ex: Rep. Don Bacon (Nebraska) : “I think before we move on to [an] impeachment inquiry, we should ... there should be a direct link to the president in some evidence. We should have some

clear evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor, not just assuming there may be one."

"For years, Republicans in Congress have tried to muddy the waters by attracting media coverage of their allegations, and as they choose to move forward with impeachment, it is the responsibility

of the independent press to treat their claims with the appropriate scrutiny. 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.

House Republican leaders should be held accountable for the fact that they are lurching toward impeachment over allegations that are not only unfounded but, in virtually all cases, have been

actively disproven – including by witnesses and documents in their own investigations, as well as years-old congressional probes and even the former President’s first impeachment inquiry.

The memo includes a 14-page appendix that "comprehensively addresses the 7 key lies House

House Republicans are suggesting they are basing an impeachment on.

We hope this document helps provide you with factual information useful in your reporting on their unprecedented, unfounded claims underlying an impeachment inquiry without any evidence of wrongdoing."

CNN has reported that “there are as many as 30 [House] Republicans who don’t believe there’s enough evidence yet for impeachment.”

Perhaps that is why, despite vowing just days ago that any impeachment inquiry would be opened by a vote of the House, Speaker McCarthy has gone

against his own demands in 2019 to open an inquiry unilaterally – flip flopping on his own commitment to a vote."

Link to False Claims:

documentcloud.wondershare.com/clientShare/re…

Link to Memo:

documentcloud.wondershare.com/clientShare/re…

Impeachment scholars in Time:

“In every single case, there was very significant evidence of presidential wrongdoing before the formal inquiry was begun,”
“The House, and House leadership, took the responsibility of formally opening such an inquiry extremely seriously. ...

Nancy Pelosi, in the first impeachment, resisted calls for impeachment of Trump for two years.”

time.com/6313452/impeac…