Joe Biden Phone Call with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani: Not Impeachable

There’s much to condemn in President Biden’s disgraceful orchestration and dishonest defense of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. But it is meritless to berate the president over a phone conversation he had with the former president of the then-U.S.-backed (and now-deposed) Afghan government.

Criticism of Biden’s July 23 call with then-president Ashraf Ghani is mounting among Republicans, particularly those who remain beholden to former president Trump. Here is the convoluted theory: Trump was impeached over a phone conversation with the leader of Ukraine, in which he conflated legitimate investigative concerns with his own political fortunes; analogously, Biden’s call with Ghani may also trigger a finding of “high crimes and misdemeanors” because he is said to have been leveraging his foreign-relations powers to prevent a major hit to his domestic political standing.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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There’s much to condemn in President Biden’s disgraceful orchestration and dishonest defense of the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan. But it is meritless to berate the president over a phone conversation he had with the former president of the then-U.S.-backed (and now-deposed) Afghan government.

Criticism of Biden’s July 23 call with then-president Ashraf Ghani is mounting among Republicans, particularly those who remain beholden to former president Trump. Here is the convoluted theory: Trump was impeached over a phone conversation with the leader of Ukraine, in which he conflated legitimate investigative concerns with his own political fortunes; analogously, Biden’s call with Ghani may also trigger a finding of “high crimes and misdemeanors” because he is said to have been leveraging his foreign-relations powers to prevent a major hit to his domestic political standing.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.