The House GOP’s “Impeach Biden” Scam
Fred Wertheimer’s Weekly Note | August 10, 2023
Ever since they took control of the House in January, MAGA Republicans have been hunting President Joe Biden.
House Republicans – led by beleaguered House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and key members of the extremist “Freedom Caucus” – are expected to move forward with an impeachment proceeding against President Biden this fall.
These Republicans claim that Joe Biden financially benefited from his son Hunter’s dubious foreign business interests and that Joe Biden provided government favors in return.
In effect, they claim Joe Biden took bribes. They claim Biden weaponized the Justice Department to have it prosecute Donald Trump. They claim Biden got a sweetheart plea bargain for his son in a Justice Department criminal case.
But there is a basic problem here. For all the allegations, House Republicans have zero evidence to support any of their claims, and no basis – not even a fig leaf – for impeaching Biden.
That doesn’t negate the fact that Hunter Biden has been involved in shady practices and has attempted to personally capitalize on his father’s power in Washington.
Since they lack any evidence to meet the constitutional standards for impeaching Biden, House Republicans have been using political attack rhetoric and innuendo as a substitute.
They are trying to make an impeachment case against Joe Biden based on “the sins of the son.”
This is not the first time a President or Vice President has had family members involved in dubious practices. But none faced impeachment for the actions of their relatives. And neither should President Biden.
An example of the failure of Republicans to make a case against Joe Biden is Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s former business partner, who testified last month before Rep. James Comer’s (R-KY) House Oversight Committee.
Archer was advertised as a witness who, according to a Trump campaign email, “could blow the lid off Joe Biden’s phony claims of innocence.” Chairman Comer said Archer could become a “hero” of the investigation and provide the evidence needed to impeach Biden.
Archer testified that Hunter Biden tried to make use of his father’s power in Washington for Hunter’s financial gain, and that Hunter put his father on the phone some 20 times when meeting with business associates.
But Archer also testified that business was never discussed when Joe Biden was on the phone.
And, when it came to the critical bottom-line question, if Archer was aware of any wrongdoing by Joe Biden, Archer answered: “No, I’m not aware of any.”
Another key player out to impeach Joe Biden is Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a leader of the Freedom Caucus and Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over impeachment proceedings.
Jordan already has experience in pursuing an impeachment without any evidence.
In 2016, then-Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) introduced a resolution of impeachment against IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Jordan, then-chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a leader of the Koskinen impeachment effort, announced that Freedom Caucus members would push for a House vote on the impeachment resolution.
Koskinen was one the nation’s finest public servants, having served Democratic and Republican Presidents over a period of decades with great distinction. He had done absolutely nothing wrong.
In 228 years, the House had exercised its power of impeachment against an Executive Branch official other than a President only once, in 1876.
The attack on Koskinen was irresponsible partisan politics, played by Jordan, Fleming, and another leader of the effort, then-Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). They targeted Koskinen in order to go after the IRS, a favorite whipping agency of House Republicans.
But, 2016 was a pre-MAGA time, and with the support of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican-led strategy resulted in the impeachment effort failing by a resounding vote of 342-72.
Today, however, most House Republicans follow the lead of Trump, who has threatened to support a primary opponent against any Republican Representative who doesn’t vote to impeach Biden.
That leaves the deciding votes on impeachment in the hands of some 20 House Republicans who won their elections in districts carried by Biden in 2020. Voting to impeach Biden by those Republicans in vulnerable districts could seriously damage their reelection chances.
While a Biden impeachment would quickly be disposed of in the Senate, the House effort is just one more example of how Republican MAGA extremists have taken control of the House at grave cost to our country.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
