On Wednesday December 13th the House formalized an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. Republicans in the House claim that President Biden was financially benefited from his family's foreign business dealings. The vote ruled in favor of the inquiry, a 221 to 212 victory.
The inquiry was first proposed earlier this year, in September, but lacked support and could not pass for a lack of evidence against the president, and even Republican members in the house were not in support of the inquiry.
President Biden and House Democrats question the purpose of the investigation because no evidence has tied the President to any of the family business dealings.
Jamie Rasking, Democratic representative from Maryland, says “What is the crime that Joe Biden is being accused of? They don’t have it,”
However Republicans hope this is a step in the right direction. The party gained many votes in favor after Hunter Biden refused to go and testify to his closed hearing in Capitol Hill, and demanded to testify in a public hearing instead.
Republicans who were formerly against the inquiry voted for it, all in agreence that the White House has been uncooraportive and hope to further investigate. As House Majority Whip Tom Emmer reminds the world; “Voting in favor of an impeachment inquiry does not equal impeachment.”
Sources:
- Olin Gawel
11 comments:
On the one hand, I think the claims about President Biden's involvement in his family's business are somewhat plausible. Biden, as current President and former Vice President of the United States, is one of the most powerful men in the country and undoubtedly has connections to many important people. As such, I think there is a small chance Biden may have helped his family by providing a business partner a favor or connecting a family member to an important person. However, it seems to me that there is essentially no evidence for this possibility; if there were, more representatives from both sides would undoubtedly be voting in favor of impeachment. Rather, I think that the impeachment inquiry is mostly a partisan effort from the GOP to discredit Biden, something we have already seen with Trump getting impeached by the House after attempting to influence Ukraine to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. If this is the case, I highly doubt that Joe Biden will be impeached, as there are currently 51 Senators who caucus with the Democrats, a majority that is unlikely to vote to convict Biden, a member of their party.
I believe that taking into account the Biden family and their history with foreign business, specifically with President Biden's son Hunter, it is somewhat fair to believe that there is a possibility that Joe Biden was able to benefit from his family's foreign business deals. There have already been many reports and criticisms made by major media outlets as well as (not surprisingly) Former President Trump in regards to Hunter Biden's relationship with Chinese business. Reports from NBC News claim that Hunter Biden has made up to 5.8 Million dollars from 2 deals with Chinese business interests alone. Business moves like this have most likely provoked the Republicans into suspecting that Joe Biden might have benefited from Hunter's foreign business deals. However, in regards to impeachment, I agree with Konstantinos's take, as I too believe that as of right now, everything is just speculation and conspiracy theories. I believe that the whole impeachment inquiry process could just be a strategy by the Republicans to try to win back the presidency. With the Presidential election less than a year away, Any controversy, let alone controversy related to impeachment, could be a horrible look for President Biden. This might just sway people in swing states to vote red in this upcoming election.
President Trump was impeached twice during his stint in the office, and if we're looking at another potential impeachment, this would be the first time in this nation's history that we'd have back to back presidents getting impeached. Although Biden's performance review has been declining more and more, so far it's still only the House republicans that are orchestrating this process, and the Democratic side of house haven't budged one bit. This could just be another example of the U.S. growing polarization leading to more issues. Supposedly, there has been no evidence so far that would suggest that Biden's using his position to benefit his family, which only further suggests that the Republicans are just trying to stir up current scenery to position themselves better for the upcoming election. Lastly I agree with Konstantinos, even thought all republicans were pro-impeach, the majority of senate is currently democrats, making the potential of a Biden impeachment even less likely.
I agree with the assertion that with the history of Biden's family involved in dealings, it is definitely plausible to believe that Joe Biden may have benefitted or even involved himself in his business dealings. With the blatant corruption that his son has been involved in such as his laptop controversy, allegedly accused Joe Biden in protecting his son in a business dealing involved with a Ukranian Gas Company as well as several other business dealings with foreign countries. While the details are complicated, Hunter Biden, I believe, has shown to dive into corrupt territory, and even if there is controversy to the extent of this corruption, I think being even slightly involved is a bad look for any public official. However, this does not make Joe Biden responsible just because he is related to Hunter. In the post, one of the quotes claims that Republicans don't even have a specific crime to accuse Joe Biden of. Republicans are essentially launching a wild good-chase-like investigation and it seems to be just a way to usurp political power and win the favor of the American people by pointing out the corruption that is rampant in the rival party rather than actually looking out for the interests of America and its citizens while protecting Democracy. Republicans shouldn't get on their high horse, however, as they have quite a few corrupt members and officials, with George Santos being a notable one.
I think the Republicans' argument behind the impeachment inquiry---that Biden profited from his family's financial activities outside the U.S.---is not implausible and could in fact be possible or at least entertained. However at the same time, the inquiry seems like either a last ditch effort to limit Biden's chances of re-election (by trying to demean his reputation / popularity) in order to increase the probability of a Republican taking presidential office, or, a stunt to shift public attention away from Trump's ongoing trial. Regardless, even if Biden was somehow (very very unlikely) impeached, it would be basically impossible for him to be removed from office since a 2/3 vote in the Senate is needed for that to happen and the Democrats control the Senate right now.
Although this could be a legitimate inquiry, it seems at this point that is another bi-product of the extreme polarization/partisanship that is ever-growing in our Capital and throughout our entire country. As other commenters have mentioned, this is likely an attempt by the GOP to limit Biden's chances at re-election through bringing possible wrongdoing to forefront of American news/media (even if it false,) hoping it will likely sway some of Biden's previous voters into flipping the coin or bringing more republicans out to vote for the republican nominee as they see his "supposed" impeachment as negative enough to do so. Personally, I believe that this impeachment has little real validity as there has been zero previous indication of it being true.
In response to Konstantinos' point, I agree that Biden's involvement in his family's business is somewhat plausible and it could be through networking or a financial deal -- without evidence, who knows? Additionally, in response to Lequan's point, I also believe this could be an example of our country's growing partisan polarization. On the one hand, there are accusations of Biden involving himself in family dealings, but on the other hand, there's no evidence to prove it. The pot is being stirred and we don't know the truth just yet. However, back to Konstantinos' point, while a vast majority of Republicans are pro-impeachment of Biden, there are a lot of Democrats in the Senate, making this impeachment less likely to happen. At most, this situation serves as an illustration of how polarized our country is and how any accusation is enough to turn a rumor into chaos.
I think that there could be some legitimacy when it comes to corruption and dealings when it comes to the Biden family. Biden's son Hunter DOES have a history of corruption and loopholes that has lead to his reputation being destroyed and I don't think its unreasonable to assume Biden was in on it too. However, do I think this is more about politics and having Biden get a bad rep before election? Yes. Republicans in the House care more about getting their party the upper hand in the upcoming 2024 elections and having Biden be impeached on top of his already shaky reputation with the public would lower his numbers in the polls. I think it would also create a bad representation of America to the rest of the world as we break a precedent of having two presidents impeached back to back. While this probably won't get Biden convicted, it might ruin his reputation and hurt his chances in his presidential pursuits in 2024.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/us/politics/biden-impeachment-house-inquiry.html
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-impeachment-inquiry-12-13-23/index.html
I believe that this inquiry over an impeachment could quite possibly be warranted, as, like Spencer mentions, Hunter Biden, a member of his family, has a history of corruption. Despite its plausibility it is unlikely that it will happen. However, the fact that we could have President's with back to back impeachment is highly worrying. There have only been 4 presidential impeachment processes in our history, and to have the possibility of 5 and have 3 of them in the span of back to back presidency's isn't good. If the current pattern of increased polarization continues, it is possible that more and more impeachments may be called for, creating a wave of political uncertainty for years to come. In order for the United States to maintain itself as a successful democracy, its presidential candidates must remain respectful of each other and refrain from any form of corruption. It is most certainly not in anyone's best interest to create a system based on distrust and corruption as that will most likely result in mass protest and political divide.
I agree with Sooren and Spencer that impeachment could be warranted for Biden. While I have not seen any direct evidence of Biden using his power (as VP or now as president) to help his son, I find it suspicious that Hunter was selected to be a member of a large Ukrainian natural gas company and paid millions by other firms for his services on the basis of his merits. If Hunter is using the "Biden" name to advertise his consulting and other business services without his father’s knowledge, than President Biden should not be guilty of corruption. If President Biden is aware of Hunter’s dealings and assist him through his political power with his business efforts, than that becomes problematic. In my opinion, presidents and other elected officials should not be allowed to use there power/influence to benefit themselves, friends, or family (especially during office).
I echo the belief expressed by other classmates that the whole Biden family may be involved in corruption and that a lack of cooperation certainly does give way to further suspicion, justifying why more House Republicans voted the second time around. That being said, I'm still a little surprised that the vote didn't pass the first time around, and that the margin of victory was so narrow, given the polarized state of modern politics, which several of my classmates have brought up. Perhaps this indicates an internal division within the Republican party, with some feeling the need to be more proactive against the Democratic president, and others feeling not as strongly. We discuss Trump's impact on the party a lot, and I think it's fair to label him as being on the far right end of the GOP... perhaps his influence as president has altered the preferences of conservative voters, and as a result, has impacted the political beliefs of the party as a whole, moving it further to the right. Either way, regardless of if this impeachment was initiated by Trump-legacy Republicans, it still gives way to what could be in interesting insight into corruption within and outside of the White House.
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