In a significant development, Republican Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, on Tuesday, announced his call for the initiation of an impeachment inquiry against Democratic President Joe Biden. This move, influenced by the more conservative faction within his party, is expected to further polarize lawmakers already grappling with legislative challenges to avert a government shutdown.
Addressing reporters, McCarthy stated, “I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.” This decision comes in the wake of growing discontent within McCarthy’s party, stemming from the previous Democratic-controlled House’s two impeachment proceedings against former Republican President Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021. It is worth noting that Trump was acquitted on both occasions in the Senate.
Biden, who triumphed over Trump in the 2020 election, is currently seeking re-election next year. Republicans, who presently hold a narrow majority in the House, have accused Biden of benefiting financially during his tenure as vice president from 2009 to 2017 through his son Hunter Biden’s overseas business ventures. However, they have yet to provide substantial evidence to support these allegations.
During a recent House hearing, a former business associate of Hunter Biden claimed that Hunter had peddled the “illusion” of access to power while his father was vice president. The White House has categorically denied any grounds for an investigation, and Biden himself has ridiculed Republicans for their talk of impeachment.
Democrats have characterized Republican discussions of impeachment as a deliberate distraction from the legal challenges faced by Trump, who is currently contending with four separate criminal indictments while seeking his party’s nomination to run against Biden in the 2024 U.S. election.
Trump has been actively urging Republicans to pursue Biden’s removal from office. Some staunchly conservative Republicans have even gone so far as to declare that they will not vote in favor of essential spending bills unless McCarthy authorizes an impeachment inquiry.
The U.S. Constitution grants Congress the authority to impeach federal officials, including the president, for charges of treason, bribery, and “other high crimes and misdemeanors.” To remove a president from office, the House must approve articles of impeachment with a simple majority, followed by a Senate vote with a two-thirds majority to convict after conducting a trial.
Any attempt to impeach Biden is expected to face significant challenges. Even if the Republican-controlled House were to vote in favor of impeachment, which remains uncertain given the party’s narrow 222-212 vote margin, it would almost certainly fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Notably, former President Trump is the only U.S. president to have been impeached twice. In his first impeachment in 2019, the House charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress for soliciting Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son on unverified corruption allegations. The second impeachment, which occurred in 2021 after Trump had left office, accused him of inciting an insurrection following the attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. The first impeachment sought his removal from office, while the second aimed to disqualify him from future presidential candidacy.
Throughout these investigations, Trump consistently dismissed them as politically motivated witch hunts. In a somewhat ironic twist, Biden, in July, taunted Republican lawmakers considering his impeachment, saying, “Republicans may have to find something else to criticize me for now that inflation is coming down. Maybe they’ll decide to impeach me because it’s coming down. I don’t know. I’d love that one.”
