The bid by some Republicans to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden took a blow on Wednesday when GOP House Representative Ken Buck said he is opposed to it during an interview with CNN.
It comes after Representative Matt Gaetz vowed to force a floor vote on impeaching the president, and said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy “may not have the job long” if he stands in the way.
In January, the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings, after Republicans won control of the second chamber in the November 2022 midterm elections. Donald Trump was impeached twice during his presidency but acquitted both times, as his opponents were unable to get the necessary two-thirds Senate majority for a conviction. The then-president was accused of abuse of power in the first trial, and “incitement of insurrection” in the second after his supporters stormed Congress on January 6, 2021.
Appearing on the CNN show ‘The Lead’ on Wednesday, Buck explained why he isn’t backing an impeachment bid at this point. He said: “I think that we have three committees that are working very hard on uncovering evidence of Hunter Biden’s wrongdoing.
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“They are looking to see if there is a connection with Joe Biden. If they reach that point where they could find evidence of a connection, fine. I think that the Republicans will move forward with an impeachment inquiry. Right now, I’m not convinced that that evidence exists. And I’m not supporting an impeachment inquiry.”
Speaking to Fox News in July, McCarthy accused Biden of the “weaponization of government” to an extent not seen since Richard Nixon was president, and speculated an impeachment inquiry may be on its way.
McCarthy said: “If you’re sitting in our position today, we would know none of this if Republicans had not taken the [House] majority. We’ve only followed where the information has taken us. But this is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed.
“I believe we will follow this all the way to the end, and this is gonna rise to an impeachment inquiry the way the Constitution tells us to do this.”
Representative Lauren Boebert, a supporter of Trump, introduced articles of impeachment against Biden in June but did not get enough support from her own party to bring this to the House floor. Speaking in her home state of Georgia last month, Marjorie Taylor Greene, another pro-Trump House Republican, vowed not to “vote to fund the government unless we have passed an impeachment inquiry on Joe Biden.”
Any bid to impeach Biden at this time would almost certainly fail, as it would require a two-thirds Senate vote with the Democrats and their allies having a slim majority in the chamber.
In an earlier interview with Newsweek, Thomas Gift, founding director of the U.K.-based University College London’s Centre on U.S. Politics, suggested impeaching Biden would be dangerous for the GOP.
He said: “Republicans need to tread carefully with impeachment talk, as it has a huge potential to backfire.
“Defenders will say that Democrats already weaponized impeachment under Trump, and so taking on Biden is well within the bounds of the GOP House majority. But a big risk is that the maneuver would be seen for what it is: petty, overtly partisan, and a distraction from delivering on policy promises for the American people.
“All of that could enable Biden his own opportunity to take a page out of Trump’s playbook and cry ‘witch hunt.'”