The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthyhas ordered the start of an investigation to determine whether the president, Joe Bidenprofited from his son’s business Hunter. McCarthy justified his decision by alleging that there are “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption” in the activities of Hunter Biden, who could be charged by Justice later this month for not paying taxes and having an unlicensed firearm. license.
An eventual impeachment de Biden it wouldn’t cost you the job to the president, but it would save McCarthy’s job. The president of the Chamber is under tremendous pressure from the most far-right of his party, whose opposition to Biden is total. If McCarthy does not at least open the investigation against the president, it is highly likely that this faction will force his dismissal and the House of Representatives will once again fall into chaos, just as happened in January when McCarthy needed 15 votes to take office due, precisely, to the opposition of the ultras of his own party. Not since 1860 – on the eve of the US Civil War to abolish slavery – had it taken so many votes for a House leader to be confirmed.
For this reason, McCarthy has taken the unusual decision of ordering the investigation of Biden without first submitting it to a vote by the full House. This is because the centrist Republican sector opposes the impeachment, claiming that there are no reasons to carry it out. The investigation will be carried out by three committees, all of them controlled by members of the Freedom Caucus, the far-right wing of the Republican Party.
If the Chamber finally launched a process impeachment, it is not clear that this one went ahead. First of all, because the Republican majority is very slim – barely five seats in a chamber that currently has 434 -, and it is possible that some congressmen from that party will vote against. If the impeachment were approved, it would go to the Senate, where Biden’s impeachment would be debated. The chances of that happening are zero. On the one hand, the Democrats have the majority in the Senate and, on the other, several prominent senators – including the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell – They oppose impeachment.
He impeachment It is, thus, a movement from the most conservative wing of republicanism, which will mobilize the bases of the party but will probably also mobilize those of the Democrats. ahead of the 2024 electionswhich is what moderate Republicans and members of the Senate of that party want to avoid.