Whether it’s incompetence in a botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, knowingly covering up the origins of the COVID-19 virus and using is as a weapon against Americans, treasonously encouraging an invasion on U.S. soil at the southern border, egregious mishandling of classified documents, or restricting free speech through censorship, there is a lot of evidence that President Joe Biden has not acted in the best interest of the American people.
And that was before the scandalous revelations of his family’s corrupt business dealings with foreign entities like China and Ukraine.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has stated that impeachment is a natural step forward following the mountains of evidence found by House GOP investigations, but he has repeatedly said that he will not impeach solely for “political purposes.” At this point, however, pursuing impeachment is far past the scope of “political purposes.”
Democrats never missed a single opportunity, no matter how weak it was, to impeach Trump. So why hasn’t the Republican-led House started formal impeachment proceedings against Biden?
To start with, McCarthy doesn’t have enough support to start impeachment proceedings against Biden. While some GOP members like Ralph Norman (R-SC) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) are pushing for an expeditious impeachment inquiry, more moderate members do not think there is enough evidence to support it.
These members argue that while there are suspicious circumstances pointing to wrongdoing, there is no concrete evidence that Biden enjoyed financial benefit from his son’s business dealings. For instance, while former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer claimed that President Biden occasionally engaged with his son’s business associates, he clarified that these interactions he witnessed were limited to casual exchanges.
Many Republicans representing swing states fear a political backlash following a Biden impeachment. They look back to 1998 when, following then-President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, Republicans saw significant losses in the midterms. Scholars argue that the losses were because not all evidence was publicly presented in Clinton’s impeachment case and that had more evidence been known, the losses may not have happened. But for Republicans in vulnerable seats, it’s not worth the risk.
At this point in the game, an impeachment of Biden would also distract lawmakers from the latest funding showdown. If the government is shut down, all funding to continue investigations into Biden would cease, and the president’s ability to continue spending will be unchecked. Robert Donachie, a former senior conservative Capitol Hill aide and vice president at Athos PR, noted, “Conservatives welcome the impeachment proceedings to uncover Biden family corruption, but it can’t be used as a distraction to give the Biden administration a blank check.”
Additionally, former President Donald Trump is complicating the matter by repeatedly calling for a Biden impeachment. If impeachment proceedings were begun, it would appear to be in retaliation for Democrats’ mistreatment of a political rival. Trump commented that “these lowlifes impeached me twice” and “Indicted me four times for nothing.” He directs Republicans to “either impeach the bum or fade into oblivion. “They did it to us,” notes Trump. For McCarthy, an impeachment at this time would seem like giving in to a highly controversial political figure’s demands, and that’s not good optics for the already-struggling House leader.
Opening an impeachment inquiry is different than actually impeaching Biden, but McCarthy notes that it’s unviable to have an inquiry with an impeachment inquiry without an impeachment vote. As one GOP strategist cautions, “If we go with an impeachment inquiry, we have no other choice but to impeach Joe Biden.”
And right now, there may not be enough evidence to secure a successful impeachment vote. Once the impeachment is complete, regardless of the results, the investigation will be over. It would be a waste of time and effort to move ahead with an impeachment based on current evidence when even more seems to be emerging daily to strengthen the case.
For McCarthy, timing is everything. Holding an impeachment this far from the 2024 elections is a wasted effort. Americans have a notoriously short memory, and any impeachment activity will be long forgotten by the time the nation takes to the polls.
And it’s all for nothing since the Democrat-controlled Senate will never remove Biden from office, regardless of what the evidence proves. But the stronger the case against Biden, the worse it will look for Democrats who refuse to impeach him.
Republicans need to settle in for the long game, remembering the tortoise and the hare. Slow and steady wins the race and will ultimately be more effective than the Democrat strategy of throwing everything at the wall, or Trump, to see if anything sticks. Only a cohesive, evidence-backed, and fully transparent impeachment of Biden will pull Republicans across the finish line.
