Senate Republicans have little appetite for impeachment proceedings against President Biden over his family’s past foreign business dealings, presenting a major roadblock as House GOP lawmakers work to win over their own skeptics.
House Republicans say opening an official impeachment inquiry would unlock new investigative powers to uncover the extent to which then-Vice President Biden was directly aware of or involved in his son’s lucrative overseas deals that GOP lawmakers allege were part of a bribery scheme.
Many Republican senators aren’t buying it.
“It’s like I said about President [Donald] Trump: if you’re gonna indict somebody, especially a president or former president, you damn better well have a good case,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama. “I know I sat through one impeachment trial. I don’t want to sit through another one.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, a leadership member, equated a Biden impeachment inquiry to retaliation for House Democrats twice impeaching Mr. Trump.
“I don’t know what the basis of this call for impeachment is. It just sounds like a lot of noise to me,” Ms. Capito told The Washington Times. “It just seems like the day you get elected, you’re gonna get impeached. I mean, is that what we’re down to now? That’s how it sounds to me.”
House Republicans are facing resistance among moderates in competitive districts. But a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus revealed he too is not on board amid the lack of a smoking gun tying Mr. Biden to his son’s alleged White House influence peddling to foreign business partners.
“I do not think that evidence has been presented,” Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado said Wednesday on NBC. “I don’t think there’s a need to have an impeachment inquiry when we have three committees that are doing great work developing the kind of evidence that would lead to an impeachment inquiry.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, meanwhile, is staring down the barrel of a potential Republican effort to oust him from his post. The California Republican has said initiating an impeachment inquiry would be the “natural step forward” in their investigations, but he lacks the votes to do so with his slim majority.
“We’ve got to seize the initiative. That means forcing votes on impeachment. And if Speaker McCarthy stands in our way, he may not have the job long,” tweeted Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. “Let’s hope he works with us, not against us.”
Some Senate Republicans suggested talk of an impeachment inquiry is Mr. McCarthy’s way of throwing a bone to his right flank.
“That may very well be Speaker McCarthy’s way of allowing folks to express their concern right now,” said Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota.
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Senate Republicans also see a potential political pitfall to going down the impeachment path so close to the 2024 elections. If the House were to pass articles, a Senate trial would likely fall squarely in next year’s campaign season.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, a potential successor to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, said that while he believes Mr. Biden “has abused his office,” there remain “legitimate questions about whether his behavior has met that constitutional standard.”
“If you’re not likely to be successful, then what are the opportunity costs, especially going into an election year where there’s other things that people are going to be looking at, and talking about, and wanting us to do?” Mr. Cornyn told The Times. “We’ve been through that twice [with Trump] since I’ve been here, and I hope not to have to do that again.”
Republicans should call the House investigations whatever they want, so long as they continue investigating and doing their due diligence, argued Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. He suggested impeachment proceedings could very well be the appropriate course of action.
“Some people are probably concerned about us getting embroiled in an impeachment trial in an election year, but I don’t expect a police officer to go to lunch before he goes to a crime when he’s called,” Mr. Cramer told The Times. “If there’s reason to have an inquiry and reason to move forward, then I think they’re obligated to do that under the law and under their oath.”
The White House and Democrats, meanwhile, salivated over the intraparty fray among congressional Republicans.
“If Speaker McCarthy opens an impeachment inquiry simply to throw red meat to his most extreme far-right members like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, it will prove that this is nothing more than an evidence-free political stunt to baselessly attack the president, not a legitimate inquiry to pursue the truth,” White House spokesperson Ian Sams said.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer was blunter.
“The calls for impeachment are absurd,” the New York Democrat told reporters.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.