Committee subpoenas Biden-related documents

Senate Republicans moved Wednesday to resurrect unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden’s son helped a Ukrainian energy firm curry favor with the Obama administration when his father was vice president, voting over strident Democratic opposition to subpoena documents for an investigation that President Donald Trump hopes to weaponize for his reelection campaign.

The party-line vote by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was part of an emerging effort by Republicans to use their Senate majority to advance Trump’s drive to rewrite the narrative of the Russia investigation in a way that implicates his political rivals, all while diverting attention from the coronavirus crisis that has imperiled his presidency and their own electoral chances.

Republicans insisted that their work was not about smearing Biden but rather exposing potential wrongdoing.

“If nothing happened, the American people need to know that,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the homeland security panel chairman, told reporters after the hearing. “If something happened, they need to know that as well. We are just seeking the truth here.”

But the recent uptick in activity comes after Trump has prodded senators in recent weeks to “get tough” on investigations of his perceived enemies, including warning them that if Republicans did not stick together, “vicious” Democrats would wipe them all out in November.

With their party’s political standing damaged by the pandemic, most Republicans — even those who have normally shied away from the president’s incendiary accusations — now appear ready to follow Trump’s lead.

Once reticent to echo Trump’s accusations of a “witch hunt,” Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the majority leader, has in recent days adopted the president’s lines of attack, painting him as the victim of vague and unspecified crimes.

Senate Democrats have refused to take part in the inquiries so far, dismissing them as thinly veiled political stunts.