Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American power,

politics and society. On each episode, I will talk to an American expert or an expert on

America about something that's going on in America in

2003. I am delighted to be joined once again by Jacob Harbrun, who is editor of the

national interest and the most frequent contributor again in 2023. The title goes to you, Jacob,

of most frequent contributor to the Americano podcast.

And we're going to be talking about some of the latest news coming out of Washington,

which is that the Republican Party last night voted to formalise the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

This came after Hunter Biden, Joe Biden's son,

did a pretty extraordinary speech outside Congress in which he said that the Trump attack machine

has been saying, where's Hunter, which is a sort of right-wing meme, where's Hunter? And he said,

here's the answer, I am here. And he said, here's the answer,

I am here. And he said he would be willing to be grilled by a congressional committee in public.

He just didn't want to do what the Republicans have asked him to do, which is a behind-closed-doors inquiry.

This then led to the Republican Party voting to formalize the impeachment inquiry.

This is not the same as impeachment, is it, Jacob? But could you please explain to us the significance of it?

It allows the Republicans to issue subpoenas. The Democrats have been arguing that there's no proper inquiry so far that

it's just a fishing expedition. So the Republicans argue that this endows their hunt for Hunter

Biden with more gravitas. It gives it a bit of congressional authority. Right. For Hunter Biden, it may not be a

good thing, but for Joe Biden it is because the impeachment is now conducted with metronomic

regularity on Capitol Hill, so it is.

Hello and welcome to the Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American power, politics, and society.

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