Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley says he is ardently in favor of the House impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, announced Tuesday, regarding the Biden family’s alleged receipt of millions from foreign officials.

“I’m all for it,” Hawley told The Heartlander in an exclusive interview Thursday. “I’ve called for it. We’ve got multiple, credible witnesses who have said now that they’ve got evidence that Joe Biden participated in a foreign bribery scheme. If that is not worthy of a full-scale investigation, I don’t know what is. If that’s not a high crime and misdemeanor, I don’t know what is.

“The American people deserve to know, as I’ve said many times before, whether or not the president’s a criminal. And there’s a lot of allegations and evidence that he is.”

Despite records and witness testimony indicating a possible Biden bribery scheme involving such nations as China and Ukraine, the White House Counsel’s office sent major news organizations a letter advising them to “ramp up their scrutiny” of “an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”

An Ingrid Jacques column in USA Today Thursday called the White House letter “a bunch of bull jerky.” Her readers have the right to tell her how to do her job, Jacques writes, “But you know who doesn’t? President Joe Biden – or any government official.”

Yet, the White House memo warns the media outlets, “It is the responsibility of the independent press to treat (Republicans’ impeachment) claims with the appropriate scrutiny.” In fact, the memo says covering the impeachment proceedings evenhandedly – as in “Republicans say X, but the White House says Y” – would actually be “a disservice to the American public who relies on the independent press to hold those in power accountable.”

The memo seems to insinuate Biden is not “in power,” and thus should not be held accountable.

Hawley says accountability is precisely what the impeachment inquiry is about. And he had choice words for the Biden administration’s effort to dictate news coverage of it.

“This is the same administration,” he says, “that went and made lists of people they wanted kicked off social media, that turned the social media companies into giant censorship machines. And now they’re trying to do it with all of the corporate media. 

“And the sad part is, they’ll probably go along! The corporate media will probably go along and just capitulate. I mean, they may as well be state-owned. They’re basically state media at this point. Facebook, Google, YouTube – those guys are state media, we now know, based on what they did with the social-media censorship. And all of the TV stations, the corporate media, they’re all acting like it too. And the newspapers – Washington Post, New York Times.  

“I hope they’ll show some journalistic integrity, but I’m not holding my breath.”

Hawley wished the House godspeed in its probe of the Bidens’ alleged influence peddling.

“Let’s get the facts,” he said. “Let’s figure it out. It should all be done in public, and I’d urge the House to move quickly on it.”