The GOP is growing more and more confident that they can seize control of the House in the November midterm elections. And they are already prioritizing what their first steps will likely be.
What’s at the top of the list? Impeaching President Biden.
Several conservative members of Congress have already introduced impeachment articles against the president.
These articles accused the president of “high crimes” on a whole range of issues that include border enforcement, the handling of the pandemic, and the botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
These resolutions had no chance of getting to the table while the Democrats held narrow control of the lower chamber, but the GOP is expected to win the House majority in the midterms, so conservatives are waiting eagerly for their new power to impeach the president.
Rep. Bob Good, a Republican from Virginia, said, “I have consistently said President Biden should be impeached for intentionally opening our border and making Americans less safe. Congress has a duty to hold the President accountable for this and any other failures of his Constitutional responsibilities, so a new Republican majority must be prepared to aggressively conduct oversight on day one.”
This, of course, is exactly what happened in the previous administration with former President Donald Trump. The Democrats took control of the House in 2019, and immediately the vocal progressives gathered to impeach Trump.
They focused on accusations that he obstructed a Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign. When a whistleblower accused Trump of pressuring a foreign power to find dirt on his opponent, the Democrats in the center joined the fray for impeachment. And three months later, the House impeached Trump on two counts related to abusing power.
There are already dozens of GOP leaders who have suggested that they are primed to support the battle for the impeachment of Biden.
There have been at least eight resolutions to impeach the president since he took office. Three of them are related to how he is handling the border crisis; three are focused on his mishandling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan; one is against the eviction moratorium during the pandemic; and one is connected to his overseas business interactions through his son, Hunter Biden.
Although these proposals will expire at the end of this Congress, the sponsors are already promising to revisit them quickly next year.
One of the major forces in this is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the lead sponsor of four of the impeachment resolutions.
“She believes Joe Biden should have been impeached as soon as he was sworn in, so of course she wants it to happen as soon as possible,” Nick Dyer, a Greene spokesman, said Monday in an email.
This could be a problem for Rep. Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), the Republican leader in line to be Speaker. Impeaching Biden could alienate moderate voters and hurt the GOP at the polls. Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is already trying to dampen the fervor behind this move, saying it could damage the GOP in the midterms.
But if this is ignored, it could damage the relationship the Party has with its impassioned base. McCarthy does not want to anger the far right.
Rep. Mary Miller (R) is a strong Trump supporter who recently won an Illinois primary over the more moderate Rep. Rodney Davis (R). He said Biden should be removed “for purposely ignoring our immigration laws.”
“Biden and Harris have failed their most basic duty,” Miller said, “which is ensuring the safety of the American people through the security of our borders.”
Navigating these waters will be tricky both before and after the midterm elections.
