Pros and cons of House impeachment inquiry into Hunter Biden investigation.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Opens Door to Impeachment Inquiry of President Joe Biden
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) decision to open the door to an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden marks an aggressive step in GOP lawmakers’ investigations — as well as a potentially risky gambit ahead of an election.
McCarthy first said Monday evening that enough evidence implicating Joe Biden in the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden, had emerged to warrant consideration of an impeachment inquiry.
HUNTER BIDEN PLEA: FOREIGN AGENT REVELATION HELPS UNRAVEL ’SWEETHEART’ DEAL
He doubled down Tuesday on the plan, suggesting that an impeachment inquiry could serve as a response in the event more information emerges to suggest impropriety by Biden or the Department of Justice investigating his family.
The collapse Wednesday of the plea deal prosecutors had offered to Hunter Biden could deepen GOP interest in the case.
The deal began to unravel when the presiding judge asked questions about whether the investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings remained ongoing, and the Justice Department acknowledged that it was.
Hunter Biden’s attorneys appeared to object to the idea that their client could face any future criminal charges, leading to the rejection of the deal.
That a judge questioned the constitutionality of charges offered by prosecutors already accused of misconduct could give Republicans even more credibility in their quest to investigate the DOJ.
Here are the pros and cons of a Biden impeachment inquiry.
PRO: MORE TOOLS AVAILABLE
Opening an impeachment inquiry, which McCarthy can technically do without a full vote of the House, would provide lawmakers with more tools to seek answers from the Biden administration.
An impeachment inquiry could increase subpoena power and override more of the government’s roadblocks to congressional oversight. House Republicans have faced many such roadblocks so far; they threatened to hold FBI Director Chris Wray in contempt of Congress in recent weeks over the bureau’s refusal to hand over a key document, for example.
The decision to launch an impeachment inquiry could also unlock funding to hire extra staff who can help process the evidence.
Justice Department officials have found ways to stonewall much of the GOP’s investigation so far. They have declined to make witnesses available, withheld documents, and refused to answer questions about how the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware handled the yearslong investigation.
But the DOJ would find it more difficult to avoid cooperating with Republicans in the context of an impeachment inquiry.
PRO: FORCES DEMOCRATIC HANDS
Many congressional Democrats have managed to get through the past seven months of GOP investigations without having to comment on the evidence implicating Hunter Biden and, increasingly, his father.
When they have weighed in, they’ve often deferred to U.S. Attorney David Weiss, citing his nomination by former President Donald Trump and the ongoing nature of the investigation into Hunter Biden.
That approach became far less credible on Wednesday when a federal judge criticized the unusually lenient structure of Hunter Biden’s plea bargain and got the Justice Department to admit it was investigating the president’s son for potential foreign lobbying crimes. Democrats may find it more difficult to point to Weiss’s independence after the stunning development this week.
An impeachment inquiry would force Democratic lawmakers to contend with the substance of the allegations against the Biden family.
The proceedings would involve detailed hearings and memos laying out the web of shell companies used by the Biden family to collect foreign payments, the unregistered lobbying work Hunter Biden did for foreign businesses while his father was in office, and the steps the Justice Department took to smother any efforts to look into those things.
Perhaps most importantly, it would force Joe Biden’s hand as well.
The White House has remained staunchly tight-lipped about the extent of Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business affairs. Spokespeople have quietly shifted away from denying that the president ever discussed business with his son in light of evidence that he did, frequently, discuss business matters and begun denying only that Joe Biden was in business with Hunter Biden.
But an impeachment inquiry would require the White House to craft a factual, not just rhetorical, defense of Joe Biden. And that could force Joe Biden’s aides to acknowledge that, during the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden lied about the extent of his contacts with Hunter Biden’s business associates.
PRO: SETS A TIMER
In the seven months since Republicans assumed control of the House, Biden administration agencies have largely succeeded in slow-walking many of the investigations various committees have launched.
Time is often the side of federal agencies, which can erect endless bureaucratic walls around documents or testimony they don’t want Congress to have.
Impeachment inquiries tend to move quickly and override the concerns federal officials raise.
The first impeachment inquiry of Trump, for example, began and ended in two months and still involved interviews with more than a dozen witnesses, the review of stacks of documents, and the release of a 300-page report.
Whistleblower testimony has revealed that the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden began in at least 2018. Two IRS agents on the case claim friendly prosecutors have dragged the case out for five years.
An impeachment inquiry could finally set a deadline for resolving the question of whether Hunter Biden committed crimes in which his father was involved, either directly or through the crime of arranging the Justice Department to cover for his son.
CON: RALLY AROUND THE CHIEF
An aggressive inquiry into the Biden family could backfire by creating an incentive for skeptical voters and elected Democrats to rally around a president of whom they’re currently skeptical.
Some of the elements of the Hunter Biden saga evoke sympathy from many people, such as a struggle with substance abuse that many families relate to and the tragedy of Beau Biden’s death in the middle of what whistleblowers claim was the height of Hunter Biden’s alleged criminal activity.
Democrats could successfully accuse Republicans of exploiting the pain of a beleaguered family if the impeachment inquiry focuses too much on the sympathetic elements of the narrative.
House Republicans have created that dynamic before.
Former President Bill Clinton’s approval ratings actually increased amid the impeachment proceedings against him for lying about an affair he’d had with a White House intern.
The impeachment inquiry against him proved to be unpopular.
CON: DISTRACTS FROM 2024 MESSAGE
Republicans running for president are pushing economic reforms, parental rights laws, disengaging from the war in Ukraine, and more.
An impeachment inquiry would, for months, focus the nation’s attention on something other than the GOP’s campaign message.
Polling also suggests voters are primarily concerned about the economy and inflation heading into the election.
Joe Biden’s consistently weak poll numbers on the issue of the economy give Republican candidates a serious opening to make a more persuasive economic case to voters.
But if Joe Biden faces an impeachment inquiry, they could be forced to spend too much of their time talking about a scandal that, so far, voters seem to discount when assessing the president’s performance.
CON: DROWNED OUT BY TRUMP
The former president faces an indictment on campaign finance charges from the Manhattan district attorney, an indictment on mishandling classified documents and obstruction of justice from special counsel Jack Smith, and a potential third indictment to be filed in the coming weeks related to his challenges to the 2020 election results.
That could put Trump, the front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, in the position of bouncing from trial to trial in the months before the election.
And that could force House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry to share the spotlight with an equally sensational legal drama involving their party’s standard-bearer — potentially lessening the impact of whatever facts they bring to light through the inquiry.
What’s more, the Trump saga could allow Democrats to point fingers at illegal activity across the aisle as Republicans argue Joe Biden does not deserve another term — given that Trump, too, is seeking a second term under a cloud of criminal allegations.
CON: FLOOR TIME CRUNCH
Impeachment inquiries suck up significant floor time and committee resources, slowing congressional business to a virtual halt.
That would mean Republicans couldn’t focus on legislative fights they have vowed to wage, such as passing bills to protest Joe Biden’s immigration agenda, taking on major technology corporations, and slashing the federal budget.
Using up the final productive legislative months before the 2024 race gets underway on an impeachment inquiry could also allow Democrats to accuse Republicans of stopping Congress from addressing the issues voters care most about.
GOP lawmakers would therefore run the risk of handing Democrats a shield to guard against criticism of their policy failures during the presidential race.
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