Despite signing a $95 billion foreign aid bill into law more than a fortnight ago, President Joe Biden has reportedly withheld 3,500 bombs that Congress authorized to send to Israel as our democratic ally embarks on its final incursion into the remaining Hamas stronghold of Rafah.
The news comes on the heels of the Biden administration’s decision to announce that Hamas agreed to an 11th-hour ceasefire — one that Israel never offered and would never accept, rendering the announcement more likely an attempt to stall the Israeli invasion of Rafah than a real attempt at securing a lasting peace.
Biden’s deliberate attempt to defy Congress’s power of the purse in distributing legally authorized aid to the Israelis draws a striking parallel to five years earlier, when then-President Donald Trump attempted to withhold congressionally authorized aid to Ukraine. In today’s case, critics could obviously, and convincingly, argue that Biden has pivoted away from his previous “unconditional” support in the hopes of placating the far-Left base in Dearborn, Michigan, and Morningside Heights in New York to better his 2024 reelection odds In 2019, Trump’s critics did argue that he withheld Ukrainian aid to cajole President Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating Hunter Biden’s corrupt overseas business dealings in the country, then in the hopes of enhancing his 2020 reelection odds. And if in the latter case, Democrats impeached Trump for playing politics with congressionally authorized aid, why would Republicans, playing by the same rules, not impeach Biden?
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Like Barack Obama’s administration before him, Trump’s Office of Budget and Management was indeed found responsible by the Government Accountability Office for violating the Impoundment Control Act when it held up nearly a quarter-billion dollars appropriated by Congress to Ukraine for fiscal 2019. Although it took public speculation from both Ukrainian and American officials, Trump ultimately released the aid on Sept. 11, 2019, before the end of the fiscal year. While the GAO specifically condemned him for failing to spend a legally required message explaining why he was deferring the release of the Ukraine aid — the Impoundment Act does allow a president to withhold releasing funds for specific reasons and with this required explanation to Congress — Trump followed precedent and the broader law in releasing the aid before the deadline.
But if Democrats consider withholding aid for personal political gain an impeachable offense, even if it’s well before the disbursement deadline, then it follows that Biden’s clandestine attempt to slow-walk munitions to Israel is a comparable offense. The value of the aid is the same — also another quarter-billion dollars — and the arguable intention is similar. If Biden wants to bank on kneecapping Israel as it approaches the precipice of defeating Hamas, he can take his radical base in exchange for an impeachment.