Thick and fast impeachments
Hugo Gurdon
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When Republicans started talk of impeaching President Joe Biden, it was clear that a sort of inflation was devaluing the Constitution’s ultimate sanction — too much impeachment chasing too few presidents. With presidential impeachments coming thick and fast, the impact of this supposedly grave undertaking has dwindled almost to nothing.
Nothing good, that is, for those doing the impeaching. But it sometimes helps the president being impeached (see, for example, Bill Clinton and the 1998 election). But House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has nevertheless launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden, who has obviously been selling his name or helping market it for his family.
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The president lied that his son Hunter wasn’t paid by China (it’s $20 million from China and others so far), lied that he knew nothing about these business dealings (despite dining with Hunter’s partners and sharing his vice presidential planner so Hunter could schedule business trips accordingly), and lied that Russians falsified evidence on Hunter’s famous stray laptop (which was verified later by the Washington Examiner).
Evidence of Biden’s dishonesty and corruption as vice president and in 2017 and 2018 is invisible only to news outlets determined to look away from it when it is staring them in the face. Scores of questionable money transfers to shell companies and on-the-record accusations by business buddies cannot be dismissed as “no evidence.”
It’s not proof beyond reasonable doubt or on the balance of probabilities that the president took bribes, but that’s beside the point. He abetted and hid behavior that was unethical and perhaps criminal. Biden seems to have plunged into influence-peddling late in the Obama presidency, perhaps because he then assumed the path to the presidency was closed to him and he might as well cash in. With private sector life looming, he upped his money-grubbing, just as Hillary Clinton did after her defeat in 2008. But both got another shot — she in 2016, he in 2020, which made their disqualifying family-financial activities a problem.
So, it’s not that GOP suspicions miss the mark, just that their response may be unwise. Voters have just endured two pointless go-rounds with the last president. Whatever charges the House brings — it might not bring any, but momentum toward them will be strong — the Senate controlled by Biden’s party will acquit him. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) dismissed the GOP “witch hunt” so contemptuously that he didn’t even bother giving attribution to former President Donald Trump, who owns the copyright on that phrase.
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Impeachments that don’t convict aren’t always worthless. Edmund Burke’s 18th impeachment of Warren Hastings means history will always regard the governor of Bengal as corrupt. The 1868 impeachment of President Andrew Johnson similarly tainted Abraham Lincoln’s successor.
But if launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden is primarily intended to tarnish him for electoral purposes, as his inevitable acquittal suggests, it is a misstep. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who will run the inquiry, was already producing a steady supply of damning evidence against the first family. Voters could see the Republicans shift into the high gear of impeachment inquiry as partisan and vengeful. If so, it will backfire, just as it did 25 years ago.