The opening of impeachment proceedings has been demanded for months by the Trumpist wing of the Republican Party. The Republican leader of the US House of Representatives announced on Tuesday September 12 that he was launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden into his son’s controversial business abroad. Kevin McCarthy believes the Democratic leader “lied” to the American people.
The White House immediately denounced the investigation, accusing Republicans of resorting to “the worst of extreme political maneuvers.” “House Republicans have investigated the president for nine months and have not found a single piece of evidence of wrongdoing,” Ian Sams, a White House spokesperson, told X (formerly Twitter) .
The U.S. Constitution provides that Congress can impeach the president for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
The Republicans in the House of Representatives, in the majority since January, are conducting a series of parliamentary investigations into the affairs of Joe Biden’s youngest son. These elected officials have “identified serious and credible allegations about the conduct of President Biden,” assured Kevin McCarthy, accusing the Democrat of fueling a “culture of corruption”.
However, for the moment this investigation has almost no chance of leading to the impeachment of Joe Biden, his party being in the majority in the Senate, the chamber which would be called upon to judge the Democratic president if he were indicted by elected officials.
Privileged target of the American right
Hunter Biden, a 53-year-old former businessman, has become a favorite target of the American right. Elected officials criticize him in particular for having done questionable deals in Ukraine and China while Joe Biden was Barack Obama’s vice-president (2009-2017), capitalizing on his father’s networks and name. Joe Biden has always publicly supported his son, with a past drug addiction, who is also struggling with the law.
Several moderate elected officials from the Republican Party, however, are opposed to the opening of this investigation, for fear of transforming the procedure into a purely partisan exercise. The Democrats respond that these right-wing efforts are only screens used to hide the legal troubles that are accumulating for Donald Trump. The former president, who could face Joe Biden again in November 2024, has been indicted four times in less than six months.
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.
