LARRY KUDLOW: These are crimes against American democracy

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has declared an impeachment inquiry on the Biden family's culture of corruption. So, as a non-lawyer, I thought I'd make a little list to assist the House efforts, in my own very small way.   

We have Oversight Chairman James Comer, who has been designated the lead in the inquiry. He will be on the show in just a moment to maybe give some thoughts to my little list, and more importantly his big list, which really matters. Parenthetically, I could talk some more about rising prices and falling family incomes. Also, rising poverty rates.   

This is all the failure of Joe Bidenomics. He is out defending Bidenomics today. We will have more on that later in the show. AAA national gasoline now up to $3.86 on its way to $4.00. Oil in the world markets now $93 a barrel, on its way to $100. This is killing middle-class working families. It's also killing low-income people.  It is reducing wages.

Refined petroleum products permeate the entire economy. I don't think people appreciate that. It affects hundreds of prices and Joe Biden's war on fossil fuels has cut production, jacked up the prices of almost everything and played right into the hands of the OPEC+ crowd that includes all our great friends like Iran, Venezuela, Russia and the Saudis.   

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That whole story is sheer insanity, but having said all that about the failure of Bidenomics, bear with me while I go back to my small contribution to Chairman Comer's investigation of the Biden culture of corruption.    

According to reports, nine family members received foreign money from places like China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan, including one grandchild.  Half the money was given to Papa Joe, according to son Hunter. 10% of various deals were given to the Big Guy, according to Tony Bobulinski. At least 20 calls were made by various Hunter Biden clients and colleagues to Papa Joe in the Oval Office of the White House, according to Devon Archer.   

Senior IRS whistleblowers testified to repeated examples of political interference by the Justice Department and the FBI in their various tax investigations of Hunter and his companies. By the way, Hunter just got busted today on three counts of felony gun charges with a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.   

Meanwhile, those whistleblowers also produced a WhatsApp message where son Hunter threw a temper tantrum at his Chinese communist investors in order to pay up a multi-million dollar sum and revealed that Papa Joe was sitting right next to him.   

Call that "up close and personal" extortion. A senior FBI informant reported that the CEO of Ukranian oil company Burisma was extorted by Papa Joe to the tune of $5 million bucks for Papa and another $5 million for the son as a bribery scheme to get rid of the Ukranian prosecutor Viktor Shokin and there's an audio tape floating around that allegedly proves this. The FBI and who knows who else is either blocking it or burning it, or dropping it in the Danube River.   

Then, poor Shokin lost his job because of a last minute Papa Joe intervention, even though the U.S. State Department and their European counterparts all signed off on Ukraine's anti-corruption reforms led by Shokin. Devon Archer testified that the Biden family "brand" was influence peddling.  

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In my non-lawyerly way, it seems to me influence peddling is a very big theme in all this, side-by-side with bribery and the culture of corruption and of course, Papa Joe lied to the public for years in denying knowledge of his son's business dealings. I save that for last, because it really is the lowest hanging fruit in this story. Again, this is my small contribution to the grand story called the "Biden impeachment inquiry."   

Many of these charges are allegations, but many of them have been factually proven. The failure of Bidenomics is not an allegation – it's backed up by hard evidence, but charges of bribery, extortion, influence peddling, politicization of our justice system, and corruption in the Justice Department and the FBI are far greater crimes against American Democracy. That's my riff.  

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the September 14, 2023, edition of "Kudlow."