Ahead of this week’s expected House vote on formalizing the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, a new poll shows the majority of voters living in the 17 Republican-held congressional districts that Biden won in 2020 are hesitant to embrace the impeachment effort, which a slight majority see as a partisan political project rather than a genuine effort to expose wrongdoing.
Almost 75 percent of voters in those competitive districts say Congress should focus more on the economy, inflation, crime, and border security compared to the 14 percent who say the Biden-impeachment inquiry should take higher precedence on Capitol Hill, according to a recent survey conducted by Public Policy Polling. The remaining 12 percent say they are unsure.
Fifty-two percent of respondents to the recent poll say the impeachment inquiry is more of a partisan political stunt, while 41 percent believe it is a serious investigation. Similarly, 52 percent hold to the opinion that the impeachment inquiry is more about damaging Biden politically, while 43 percent believe it’s about finding the truth.
The data comes as House Republicans are looking to vote Wednesday on authorizing the impeachment probe, which former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) launched without the full authority of the House back in September. It’s unclear whether the measure will pass, considering Republicans can’t afford to lose more than three votes on the matter if Democrats unanimously oppose it, as expected.
For months, Republicans on the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees have been investigating Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s foreign influence-peddling schemes over the years. While his father served as vice president, Hunter Biden sold the “Biden brand,” or access to Joe Biden, to business associates overseas in order to enrich himself and his family with millions. In total, the Biden family and their associates have received at least $24 million from foreign entities in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan, according to bank records that Oversight obtained through subpoenas.
Asked whether congressional Republicans should impeach Biden without first presenting evidence that he directly benefitted from his son’s overseas business dealings or changed policy to benefit his son’s business, roughly 62 percent say the incumbent president should not be impeached, while 29 percent say otherwise and 10 percent abstained from weighing in.
One of the latest subpoenaed records showed Owasco PC, a corporation owned by Hunter Biden, making several direct monthly payments worth $1,380 to Joe Biden starting in 2018. Oversight chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) said the wire transfers prove the president directly benefited from his family’s foreign business dealings, despite his claims to the contrary. Additional records obtained by the committee involve the president’s brother, James Biden, who paid his elder sibling personal checks worth $200,000 and $40,000, both of which were marked as “loan repayments” after receiving those same amounts from a Chinese business partner.
The White House has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing on Joe Biden’s part and maintained that the transactions were indeed loan repayments.
The polling was commissioned by the Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic-aligned activist group working to undermine the Republican investigations of the Biden family. CIP recently started airing attack ads against the Republican congressmen who represent those competitive districts.
“The American people have made it clear time and time again that they want Republicans in Congress to actually do the jobs they were elected to and address issues like cost of living and access to healthcare rather than pursuing an evidence-free impeachment of President Biden,” CIP senior advisor Brad Woodhouse said in a press release. “The Biden 17 need to decide whether they stand with Donald Trump and the extreme MAGA agenda or their constituents who have said that a vote for this bogus impeachment inquiry will spell danger for them.”
Notably, 44 percent of the polled voters are less likely to back their respective congressmen if they end up supporting the impeachment inquiry later this week. Only 24 percent are more likely to support their representatives for reelection, and 26 percent say it wouldn’t make a difference.
The 17 GOP congressmen whose districts were targeted in the polling include the following: Don Bacon (Neb.), Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Ore.), Juan Ciscomani (Ariz.), Anthony D’Esposito (N.Y.), John Duarte (Calif.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Mike Garcia (Calif.), Tom Kean Jr. (N.J.), Jen Kiggans (Va.), Young Kim (Calif.), Nick LaLota (N.Y.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), Marc Molinaro (N.Y.), David Schweikert (Ariz.), Michelle Steel (Calif.), David Valadao (Calif.), and Brandon Williams (N.Y.).
Public Policy Polling surveyed 613 registered voters in the Biden 17 districts from December 8-9. The survey has a margin of error of 4 percentage points.