House Republicans may push impeachment inquiry this fall: President Joe Biden may not have done anything impeachable, but the GOP in Congress is answering to their base in pushing a presidential impeachment anyway.
Whether they have the votes to do so is another matter entirely.
Joe Biden Headed for Impeachment?
After over seven months of over-promising and under-delivering, Republicans in the House have not come close to making the case that President Biden has committed any type of high crime.
All they have is a narrative about the “Biden Crime Family” in which the president’s son and other relatives received money in overseas business deals, without a scintilla of proof that the president himself got any money, or did anything in office to help his son’s business partners.
But with their base out for blood, the House Republicans are planning to pursue an impeachment inquiry anyway.
According to CNN, while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has been publicly noncommittal, it has become a “foregone conclusion” that Biden “will face an impeachment inquiry in the fall.”
Until now, several Republicans have introduced resolutions to impeach Biden, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) doing so numerous times, going back to the president’s first full day in office. Greene and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) even had a well-publicized confrontation on the floor of the House, over their rival impeachment resolutions. But so far, the House Republican leadership has been reluctant to move forward with a full-on impeachment inquiry.
“Republicans say if they don’t move forward with an impeachment inquiry now, it will create the impression that House Republicans have essentially cleared Biden of any wrongdoing over his ties to his son Hunter Biden’s business entanglements, allegations they say show a pay-to-play scheme when the elder Biden was vice president, even as they have yet to corroborate that provocative allegation,” CNN said.
Per the report, Republicans believe opening an impeachment inquiry will “strengthen the House’s oversight power in legal battles to obtain more documents and testimony,” including possible testimony from Hunter Biden himself, although it’s not clear why the subpoena power of committees would not give them that power now.
The story also reiterated what had previously been reported, that McCarthy has emphasized that “opening an inquiry is not the same as voting for articles of impeachment,” which may get moderates on board. But with a slim Republican majority, there’s no guarantee that the GOP has the votes to actually impeach Biden. And in a Democratic-controlled Senate, there is no chance Biden will be convicted and removed by the Senate.
“It will happen,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), said of impeachment. “But it won’t pass the Senate.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the leading Democrat on the Oversight Committee, described the effort to CNN as a “desperate effort to distract everyone from former President Donald Trump’s mounting criminal indictments and deepening legal morass.”
In addition, GOP sources told CNN that they do not expect the allegation that Biden and his son were each bribed $5 million by a foreign businessman, to be a “focal point” of an impeachment inquiry, because it “remains unsubstantiated.”
But once again, the House GOP has not come close to establishing that the president has committed any high crimes or misdemeanors.
“While Republicans say these payments substantiate allegations that Biden family members have enriched themselves off the family name and raise questions about Hunter Biden’s business activities while his father was vice president, their work has not uncovered any illegality about the payments from foreign sources, demonstrated that Joe Biden has been improperly influenced by the financial dealings or shown evidence that the president directly received any of these payments,” CNN said.
In the meantime, the Congressional GOP is also planning to make an effort to expunge the two impeachments of President Trump, which both took place during the previous Congress, although Constitutional experts have said that there is no procedure for expunging a previous impeachment.
Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
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