Wants to impeach Joe Biden - to get revenge

     

 

American politics  

 

Therefore, the Republicans want to impeach Biden

American politics Therefore, the Republicans want to impeach Biden  

Wolfgang Hansson  

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's. 

Updated 08:01 | Published at 06:35  

Columnists

The Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice. 

Now the Republicans want revenge by doing the same thing to Joe Biden even though they have absolutely no evidence. 

But it's also about an internal war within the Republicans where Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to save his job.  

It is normal to start from some kind of evidence before starting an impeachment process, which in the end can result in the president's removal. 

Instead, Republicans hope that the process itself, where Joe Biden's time as vice president to Barack Obama and his son Hunter Biden's affairs are being reviewed, will lead to the emergence of evidence against Biden.  

Impeachment used to be a very unusual measure in American politics. Now it seems to be the new normal.  

Donald Trump had barely taken office before calls for impeachment began to be heard in the Democratic Party. The same has been true for Biden, who ever since he won the 2020 election has had a number of far-right Republicans calling for impeachment.  

What was intended as a measure of last resort to remove a president who abused his power has, in the highly polarized political climate, become an instrument to smear opponents.

          

           Joe Biden. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP 

The Republican indictment on corruption is unusually thin.  

They are trying to claim that President Biden somehow benefited from his son Hunter's business. Or that Biden in some improper way fixed top jobs on boards and high compensations for his son.  

All of this has already been investigated by the Republicans for nine months without any evidence of any wrongdoing by Joe Biden. 

Hunter Biden obviously has, or at least has had, major problems with drugs and alcohol. But it can hardly be blamed on Joe Biden.  

Surely he has also been able to use his family name for his business activities. But there is no indication that Joe Biden would have played any role in the son's business activities. 

But next year there are presidential elections and the right-wing phalanx within the Republican Party hopes that an impeachment will be able to destroy Biden's chances of being re-elected.  

But it is far from certain that Republicans can muster a majority to vote through an impeachment. Their majority is only four votes and a number of the party's congressmen are afraid that a baseless prosecution will backfire on them and the party.

          

           Kevin McCarthy. Kevin McCarthy. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP  

 

The fact that Speaker Kevin McCarthy still chooses to initiate an impeachment trial is as much about his own survival as about any crimes Biden may have committed. 

 

McCarthy hangs loose and can be deposed at any time by the right-wing phalanx within the party. With the impeachment proceedings, he hopes to satisfy them and neutralize the threat to his own position of power. 

 

He also hopes to get them on his side to avoid a federal government shutdown at the end of the month. At the same time, he takes the risk of an embarrassing defeat if he does not manage to get a majority for an impeachment once the preliminary investigation is complete. It can take anything from a few weeks to several months. 

 

If the congressional investigation does not reveal any serious information about Joe Biden, the president can use it in the election campaign and point to how the Republicans are running a political game just to get rid of him.

 

Donald Trump. Photo: Charlie Neibergall / AP 

In which case, Biden is at minimal risk of being impeached. It is the House of Representatives that brings charges, but it is the second chamber of Congress, the Senate, that passes the sentence. At least two-thirds of the Senate must vote in favor of a conviction for the president to be impeached.   

 

In today's situation, the Democrats have a narrow majority in the Senate, which means that a conviction is unthinkable unless completely new and devastating evidence appears against Biden.  

 

Despite the fact that the charges against Donald Trump were significantly more motivated and well substantiated, even in his case it was more or less clear that he would be acquitted because the majority of Republicans followed the party line. 

 

In this case, I find it hard to see a single Democrat voting for a conviction if there is an indictment.  

 

But the process itself damages trust in politics in the United States and makes the country's government appear like a banana republic.  

 

Four indictments have already been filed against former President Donald Trump, who is leading by far in the polls about who will be the Republican presidential candidate next year.  

 

Trump will campaign while attending the trial. Add to that a possible impeachment of Biden in Congress and we have a truly chaotic situation in the world's leading democracy and superpower.