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Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee went about as well as expected, with a seemingly endless series of exchanges about the investigation into Hunter Biden. The New York Times noted:
Representative Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who leads the committee, repeatedly suggested that Mr. Garland had slow-walked the investigation into the president’s son, Hunter Biden, with an aim toward minimizing the political damage to his boss. “The fix is in,” Jordan said. “Even with the face-saving indictment last week of Hunter Biden, everyone knows the fix is in.”
As the Times’ report added, neither Jordan nor his GOP colleagues “provided concrete proof for their claim — or elicited responses from the attorney general that backed up those conclusions.”
Or put another way, it was another multi-hour Capitol Hill hearing featuring Republicans, certain of their righteousness and confident in their conspiracy theories, making a variety of unproven assertions without uncovering any new information that might bolster their dubious claims.
And yet, there were several references to what “everyone knows.” Jordan declared with confidence that “everyone knows” about the attorney general’s secret scheme to help President Joe Biden’s son — an initiative that appears to only exist in Republicans’ imaginations. Later, in same hearing, the committee chairman added that “everyone knows” that Justice Department prosecutors also took deliberate steps to help Hunter Biden.
Soon after, Republican Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana added that “everybody can see” that the Justice Department gave “special treatment” to the president’s son. Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas said that “everybody can see” that Joe Biden was part of a bribery scheme.
Rep. Matt Gaetz also pointed to obscure details about Hunter Biden that the Florida Republican said “everybody knows.” So did Republican Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, who added that “everybody in the country” knows that the Justice Department helped Hunter Biden.
Time and again, House Republicans took their turns at the microphone. Time and again, they told us what “everyone” and “everybody” is well aware of.
What these GOP members neglected to do was point to any meaningful or credible evidence to support their claims.
The fact of the matter is that producing evidence is hard. Simply asserting that “everyone knows” how right you are is easy.
But Republicans aren’t experts in what the public does and does not know, and their incessant assertions don’t make baseless claims true.