In much the same way that some political pundits believe the federal and state indictments of former President Donald Trump have actually boosted his presidential campaign, others believe that a GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden could actually help rather than hurt his chances at re-election.
On Monday, David Chalian, a political director for CNN, said that in-depth impeachment inquiries into Biden could actually “juice” his run for re-election.
As Chalian explained on the “Inside Politics” program on CNN:
“If one of the big potential vulnerabilities of a Biden re-election effort is an enthusiasm problem, we’re seeing that in small donors. If you want to know how to juice enthusiasm on the Democratic side? Launch an impeachment inquiry and launch impeachment, and watch what that will do to help rally Democrats to Biden’s cause.”
Some Republican members of the House of Representatives have suggested that Biden needs to be impeached, while others have even proposed specific articles of impeachment. To this point, those efforts haven’t progressed very far.
Over the last few weeks, though, Kevin McCarthy, the Speaker of the House, has signaled that the investigations his party is conducting into the foreign business dealings of the Biden family could eventually lead to formal impeachment inquiries in the fall, once the House returns to work in Washington.
On Sunday, McCarthy called a potential impeachment inquiry a “natural step forward.” He said that the investigations the House GOP is conducting have already uncovered questionable foreign dealings that involved Biden’s family as he was serving as the country’s vice president during the Obama administration.
The most notable of those investigations has looked into the business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter, while he was serving on the board of an energy company in Ukraine.
One of Hunter Biden’s former associates at that company, Devon Archer, testified to the House Oversight Committee that Hunter put his dad on speakerphone on multiple occasions while they were speaking with their business associates in Ukraine.
That testimony, many Republicans have said, demonstrated that the president lied when he previously said that he never had any discussions with Hunter about his business dealings.
The House Ways and Means Committee, the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee have all also compiled a trail of different bank transactions, as well as showcased the claims of whistleblowers who have said the Department of Justice gave favorable treatment to Hunter Biden during investigations into tax crimes he committed.
After a “sweetheart” plea deal between the DOJ and Hunter Biden’s legal team dramatically fell apart in court last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to lead an independent investigation into what happened.
To this point, a direct link between Hunter Biden’s business activities and financial benefits for the president hasn’t been drawn by Republicans just yet, a staff memo that came out of the GOP Oversight members said they don’t have to provide evidence of direct payments to President Biden to prove there was corruption involved.
