Impeachment inquiry could cause Biden headaches in election year

By voting to formally authorize a congressional investigation into Joe Biden, House Republicans have started the ball rolling toward impeachment.

It can be difficult to stop.

Three of the four times the House has taken this step to date, it has ultimately chosen impeachment. The only time this didn’t happen was because Richard Nixon resigned before the vote was taken.

Republicans claim the president profited from his family’s overseas business deals, but there has yet to be any hard evidence that he did so.

In the short term, the House action would give investigative committees more power to subpoena documents and testimony, and judges to enforce those requests. President Biden has cited the lack of formal voting as a reason for refusing to provide some information, but he may be forced to do so in the future.

Ultimately, the vote could pave the way for House Republicans to unite and support impeachment in early 2024, despite their narrow majority.

They are now on record as agreeing to move forward with the process. If moderate Republicans in Congressional districts won by Biden in 2020 suffer political damage from opening an investigation, they may conclude it’s best to follow through.

At least it’s over in the House of Commons. The matter will then move to the Democratic-controlled Senate, which will need a two-thirds majority to convict and remove the president from office.

This is a high bar never reached by a president in American history. And at least some Republicans have expressed concern that Wednesday’s vote could be another sign of winding down the impeachment process.

Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman and current Republican presidential candidate, was one of the House managers who brought the case against Clinton during her 1999 Senate impeachment trial.

“Impeachment should only be used for the most serious crimes,” he told the BBC. “That’s the way our founding fathers designed it. We don’t want partisan retaliation from the other side over impeaching the president. That’s problematic.”

No such concerns prevailed Wednesday. And now, as the clock ticks toward the November 2024 presidential election, the investigation continues.

Republicans have long viewed Joe Biden’s son Hunter as carrying his father’s political responsibilities. If they are able to link Biden’s business dealings and personal conduct to the president, it could undermine his standing with American voters.

A formal impeachment inquiry with public hearings would lead to a House vote and a Senate trial, but it could cause major headaches for Biden, who is in the midst of a campaign. And that remains true even though Republicans lack conclusive evidence linking the president to his son’s misdeeds or wrongdoing.

It is unclear what kind of twists and turns await this investigation. While no evidence has yet been presented directly linking Biden to his son’s professional and personal failures, overwhelming power can sometimes have surprising consequences.

Bill Clinton’s impeachment for lying about an affair with an intern began with an investigation into a botched real estate deal. Hillary Clinton’s email server issue arose from the investigation into the death of the US ambassador in Libya.

Sometimes you can catch fish on a fishing expedition.

But even if nothing turns out to be true, the perception, or potential, of corruption associated with Biden’s name could be damaging enough.

Republicans could also use impeachment proceedings, along with Hunter Biden’s legal battle, to distract from the real legal predicament facing likely presidential nominee Donald Trump.

Already, timing the impeachment proceedings to provide “counter-programming” to distract from President Trump’s federal trial scheduled for March on charges of illegally attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election. is being discussed.

In a country where the mood toward elected politicians is already sour, next year’s election environment could get even worse.