Can Joe Biden Be Impeached? – The founders of the United States never intended for impeachment proceedings to be weapons used by one political party against another.
This part of the Constitution was framed by the originalists to be used rarely and hopefully not at all, since it was more for emergency purposes in extreme cases of illegal acts by a president.
It was designed to address treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors – not for political and policy disagreements.
Remove a president by the ballot box, the founders would have said, if you don’t like the commander-in-chief.
Could Joe Biden be facing an impeachment? First, let us turn to a little history and then examine this question.
We Are Familiar With Nixon
President Richard Nixon was a hot mess and covered up the crime of the Watergate break-in in 1972. The votes were likely there to remove him, and he resigned in 1974 before a trial in the Senate could convict him.
Trump Impeachment Saga
President Donald Trump got taken to the woodshed twice – one impeachment in the House of Representatives was for a phone call to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Democrats thought was an abuse of power.
I didn’t agree that Trump’s actions were an impeachable offense in that regard. And the other impeachment was for inciting an insurrection at the Capitol Complex on January 6, 2021. That transgression had merit in my opinion. Trump survived removal after both impeachments failed to attract enough senators required to find him guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors.
Joe Biden Now In For Impeachment?
Now a few House renegades are filing impeachment articles against President Joe Biden. At least one of the charges is more serious and is duly noted in the Constitution. Biden is being investigated for bribery – specifically $5 million he allegedly accepted from an executive who worked at a Ukrainian energy firm while he was vice president.
A Lawmaker from Tennessee Volunteers to Make Biden Pay
Congressman Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, filed impeachment articles against Biden on June 13. Ogles thinks he has the goods on Biden for public corruption and against Vice President Kamala Harris for not fulfilling her oath to the Constitution. Ogles had promised in his previous campaign in 2022 that he would bring impeachment proceedings against Biden and Harris.
Ogles said in his statement about the impeachment articles that “Joe Biden has repeatedly abused his position of power, both as vice president and president, to cover up his illicit family business dealings and exploitation of taxpayer resources. The American people know they can’t depend on the so-called ‘Department of Justice’ to investigate the Biden family’s corruption, and so it’s up to the U.S. Congress to hold him accountable once and for all. Joe Biden is a disgrace to the Oval Office and should be stripped of his position and held responsible for his high crimes against the United States.”
Ogles believes that Harris is also complicit and deserves to be removed from office. Ogles said, “she has allowed the land invasion at our southern border to continue unchecked, threatening the livelihoods of millions and the lives of thousands who have been murdered at the hands of illegal aliens and died from illicit fentanyl.”
If the bribery accusations are true, and evidence is thin at this point, Ogles may have found a legitimate means to begin the impeachment process against Biden because that would meet the threshold of what the founders intended. Bribery is specifically mentioned in the Constitution as an impeachable offense.
Boebert Wants In on the Act
Meanwhile, Ogles’ colleague in the House, conservative spitfire Lauren Boebert, has also introduced her own Articles of Impeachment against Biden. She is focusing on Biden’s lack of enforcement of the southern border, which is similar to what Ogles believes Harris is guilty of.
Boebert made one of her trademark vitriolic statements. “Joe Biden unconstitutionally violated his duty under Article II of the Constitution to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ by intentionally disregarding our immigration laws and enabling an invasion along our southern border. Joe Biden is unable and unwilling to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. To preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, it is imperative that the House of Representatives impeach Joe Biden and hold him accountable for his egregious violations of his oath of office.”
I don’t agree that the illegal immigration problem is an impeachable offense. These are merely policy differences on how to administer the border. This is not likely to have legs in Congress, even though Republicans agree that open border policies are a huge problem for the country. If they don’t like Biden’s border policy, they should elect another president.
But the bribery allegations are another matter. That cake is not fully baked yet, but it could rise to an impeachable offense. So far, the president has not fully addressed the bribery allegations. He responded to a reporter who asked him about the investigation by remarking that the question was “dumb.” So, the Republicans would need much more evidence for this to eclipse the bar of an impeachable offense. Maybe they will find additional bank records and witnesses who can attest there was bribery. Until then the White House will say such investigatory efforts are a made-up political stunt.
Author Expertise and Experience
Serving as 19FortyFive’s Defense and National Security Editor, Dr. Brent M. Eastwood is the author of Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare. He is an Emerging Threats expert and former U.S. Army Infantry officer. You can follow him on Twitter @BMEastwood. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and Foreign Policy/ International Relations.
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