‘Fictitious’ facts and ‘imagined’ history: GOP Rep. Ken Buck slams Biden impeachment effort

GOP Rep. Ken Buck, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, slammed his caucus and party's efforts to impeach President Joe Biden as "relying on an imagined history."

“Trump’s impeachment in 2019 was a disgrace to the Constitution and a disservice to Americans. The GOP’s reprise in 2023 is no better,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) wrote in an op-ed published Friday.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced the impeachment inquiry into Biden this week in an attempt to placate his conservative critics.

Buck's positioning as an impeachment skeptic is something of an anomaly among hardline conservatives in the the far-right caucus responsible for McCarthy’s many headaches.

In an interview last Sunday, Buck suggested that “there is not a strong connection at this point between the evidence on Hunter Biden and any evidence connecting the president.”

He seemed to have changed his mind Tuesday, when he called the inquiry a “good move.”

But, on Thursday in an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN, he reverted to his previous stance: “I want to make sure we don't ruin this institution over a tit-for-tat impeachment. If the evidence is there, Jake, I will absolutely vote for impeachment. I don't see the evidence at this point.”

Buck’s Washington Post op-ed doubled down on that argument, laying out his understanding of the evidence against Hunter Biden and his father.

Republicans are “relying on an imagined history,” he claimed, calling the facts cited by Republicans “fictitious” and emphasizing the gravity of an impeachment inquiry.

“The House is back in session, and Americans are getting an up-close look at Washington’s dysfunction. We are barreling toward a government shutdown without making progress on cutting our out-of-control spending. Yet Republican leadership has decided to divert attention to an impeachment inquiry into President Biden,” Buck wrote.