The political standoff continues. The US Congress on Wednesday approved the formal opening of an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, motivated by his son’s controversial affairs abroad, and described as a “baseless political stunt” by the president.
This procedure has almost no chance of succeeding, but could turn into a headache for the White House before the presidential election in November 2024, for which Joe Biden is a candidate.
Conservatives, in the majority in the House of Representatives since January, accuse the Democratic leader of having used his influence when he was Barack Obama’s vice-president (2009-2017) to allow his son to do questionable business in China and in Ukraine.
“Joe Biden repeatedly lied to the American people,” accused the head of the House investigative committee, James Comer, from the chamber. The president, the Democrats, and his son deny these accusations outright.
The Republicans “choose to waste their time with a baseless political scheme” accused Joe Biden after the vote. “Instead of working to make Americans’ lives better, their priority is to attack me with lies,” he said in a statement.
“No proof” of wrongdoing by Joe Biden for the moment
“My father was never financially involved in my affairs,” had already brushed off Hunter Biden, who had become a prime target of the right, during a rare press conference Wednesday morning. The 81-year-old president has always publicly supported Hunter Biden, often repeating that he is “proud” of him and his fight against addiction.-
An impeachment investigation, long demanded by elected officials close to Donald Trump against whom Joe Biden could face in 2024, had already been opened against the Democratic president in the summer.
A first parliamentary hearing was even organized on the subject at the end of September, during which the experts interviewed agreed that there was currently nothing to justify an indictment of President Biden.
“There is no evidence that President Biden committed any wrongdoing,” added House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday. Republican Senator Chuck Grassley also claimed that House Republicans had provided “no evidence” of wrongdoing by Joe Biden.
Democratic majority in the Senate
The Republicans, however, believe that the formal opening of the investigation, adopted by their votes alone, will offer them additional powers, and therefore new possibilities to incriminate the Democratic leader. “The time has come to provide answers to the American people,” said the Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson, on Wednesday after the vote, assuring that he would not take this investigation “lightly.”
The U.S. Constitution provides that Congress can impeach the president for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” The procedure takes place in two stages. After carrying out its investigation, the House of Representatives votes, by a simple majority, on articles of indictment detailing the facts alleged against the president: this is what is called “impeachment” in English.
If the indictment were to be voted on, the Senate, the upper house of Congress, would then put the president on trial. However, he would very likely be acquitted, Joe Biden’s party being in the majority in this chamber.
Never has a president been impeached in American history. Three were impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021. But all were ultimately acquitted. Richard Nixon preferred to resign in 1974 to avoid certain impeachment by Congress due to the Watergate scandal.