On Sept. 11, media reports emerged that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was going to put his stamp of approval on the impeachment of President Joe Biden. The following day, the Speaker gave a press conference during which he did just that. So, now that McCarthy has thrown down the impeachment gauntlet, there is much to consider, with respect as to how this will impact the 2024 presidential election.
Explaining his decision to green-light impeachment proceedings, the California Republican talked about “a culture of corruption” surrounding the Biden family while Joe Biden served as vice president. The Speaker reviewed the extensive evidence of financial payments that flowed to the Bidens from foreign businesses and individuals in exchange for access to the White House. “That’s why today, I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” McCarthy said. “This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public.”
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) will head the impeachment inquiry, along with Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jason Smith (R-MO), who lead the Judiciary and Ways & Means committees, respectively.
McCarthy added, “The American people deserve to know that the public offices are not for sale and that the federal government is not being used to cover up the actions of a politically associated family.”
An Impeachment Conundrum
Obviously, Biden is not going to be convicted by the Senate since Republicans don’t have nearly enough votes. Additionally, there is some reluctance even on the part of a few Republican senators to go ahead with an impeachment. How will the House vote when the time comes? It’s probably safe to say Biden will be impeached and then acquitted, as Trump was twice.
Kevin McCarthy (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Ten congressional districts that Biden won in 2020 were represented by Republicans as of 2022. After that year’s midterms, 18 Republicans represented Biden-favoring districts. Then again, that was two years into Biden’s presidency. Did the voters in some of those districts have buyer’s remorse from 2020? How many of those GOPers would vote against impeaching the chief executive to maybe save their own seats – and how many would believe they need to? The question invites a lot of speculation. One could reasonably assume that only a few of them at most would go against their party, against the not-insubstantial amount of evidence of corruption, and defend a deeply unpopular president. If they did, how much respect would they get from their constituents? How likely is it that a vote against impeachment would ensure their re-election in 2024?
What of the effect on the next presidential election? The Democratic Party would, of course, use a Biden impeachment as a fundraising and get-out-the-vote tool, but to what end? As Liberty Nation’s Editor-in-Chief Leesa K. Donner quipped, there’s room for only one martyr in this election cycle. With two impeachments, four indictments, and a more than six-year-long tsunami of dishonestly negative press under his belt, Donald J. Trump has cornered the market in martyrdom.
Joe Biden (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
As for Democrat voters, will they descend in droves on polling stations in 2024 to vote for Biden because he was impeached? Hardly. They mail in their ballots anyway. There’s another reason, though, why the voting booths will not be swamped by enraged Democrats. The establishment media will, as much as possible, avoid covering the impeachment proceedings. Trump voters had two impeachments rammed down their throats. Biden voters will hardly be aware of what’s going on. This impeachment will not stir the Democrat masses, such as they are, to action. If Biden were convicted in the Senate and thrown out of office, that would be a different matter, but that’s not going to happen, and the Democrats of America have not been targeted, demonized, censored, and victimized the way Trump’s supporters have been. The visceral reaction to an impeachment will not be the same.
Should Republicans go forward at all since Joe Biden will survive? That is perhaps entirely a matter of perspective. For the sake of justice, one might say, absolutely. From the political standpoint, it’s a toss-up. When the dust settles, it may turn out to be neither a net loss nor a net gain for Republicans. If they didn’t do it, though, then this current cadre of GOP leaders may well come to be remembered as the people who let perhaps the most corrupt president in American history off the hook.
