by Domenico Maceri * –
SAN LUIS OBISPO (USA). “Impeachment should be rare and not a common thing.” With these words Mitch McConnell, senator from Kentucky and leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, distanced himself from the announcements of a possible impeachment of Joe Biden. The leader of the Republican majority in the House Kevin McCarthy (California), on the other hand, is considering impeachment, pushed by the far right of his party but above all by Donald Trump. The former president, who was indicted today by special prosecutor Jack Smith for the incitement that sparked the assaults on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, put pressure on McCarthy to raise the impeachment fuss.
McConnell is right that the use of impeachment must be rare. It has been for almost all of US history. Prior to Trump’s two impeachments (2019 and 2020), only Andrew Johnson (1868) and Bill Clinton (1998) were subject to impeachment. None of these three presidents has since been convicted in the Senate, which requires 60 votes. Trump came close (57 votes to convict). Impeachments happen largely for political reasons, but also for possible crimes. In the former president’s case, the first impeachment was prompted by his phone call to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019, asking him to announce a corruption investigation into Biden. Trump had heard rumors of wrongdoing when Biden was vice president and his son Hunter served on the board of directors of the Ukrainian company Burisma. Trump promised Zelensky to deliver the weapons promised to him after the announcement of the investigation. A quid pro quo in summary to damage Biden, his rival in the 2020 election. The second impeachment, it should be remembered, was for incitement on January 6, 2021 in the assaults on the Capitol.
The two impeachments are largely “deserved”, but the former president, to try to minimize them, put pressure on Republican parliamentarians in the House to do the same to Biden, throwing mud on the current president of the White House. In fact, Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ultra-right MP from Georgia, immediately after being re-elected in 2020 introduced articles of impeachment on Biden, citing the “corruption” of the current tenant in the White House. More recently, Greene also introduced a bill to expunge Trump’s two impeachments.
Under constant pressure from Trump, McCarthy, the tottering speaker, began talking about impeachment for Biden. Then he began to waver and suggested a possible impeachment inquiry. The main reason for this investigation would be Biden’s alleged contact with the Ukrainian company Burisma and also for money that the president allegedly received from China. There is no evidence and these allegations reflect Trump’s desperate attempt to defend himself by attacking others, suggesting that his over-the-top and potentially illegal actions apply to others as well.
Impeaching Biden would be a tough road for Republicans because a small number of them were elected in swing districts. Forcing them to vote on the potentially unpopular Biden impeachment could be their political end. Furthermore, the Democrats in the House would be united to vote against. That didn’t happen in the Trump impeachments, where ten lawmakers from his party voted to impeach in 2020 and 7 senators voted to convict in the upper house.
Republican senators have not expressed support for impeaching Biden. McConnell, John Thune (South Dakota), Joni Ernst (Iowa), John Cornyn (Texas) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) indicated little enthusiasm. Paul even characterized the possible impeachment of Biden as a “trap” that could backfire on them. It should be remembered that when Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998 there was a boomerang effect in the subsequent midterm elections. The incumbent president’s party usually loses in midterm elections but in that case the Democrats won 5 seats, the first time this has happened in more than 60 years.
Impeachment, to be deserved, requires a percentage of the opposite party’s consent. In Biden’s case, that would not be the case. Trump, on the other hand, “deserved” the two impeachments and in fact managed to get away with it in the Senate. However, the two impeachments were “deserved”, as confirmed by the judicial proceedings that are harassing the former president. With the most recent indictment on the events of January 6, 2021, the former president faces 4 court cases: two in New York State (one civil and the other criminal), one federal in Florida for illegal possession of top secret documents, and fourth in Washington for attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Georgia is nearing completion and a further indictment is expected for wrongdoing in attempting to overturn the result of the 2020 election in Peach State.
Despite all these prosecutions Trump still has no credible rival for the Republican Party nomination. Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, seemed to give him a hard time, but now he is in free fall. This confirms the current state of the GOP. The party that once prided itself on family values and the protection of law and order, but is preparing to nominate an individual who could end up in jail. In America there is no law that prevents criminals from running for political office even if, paradoxically, in the vast majority of states prisoners do not have the right to vote. It is precisely the fear of prison that would push the former president to run for a second term, according to Will Hurd, a former MP and candidate for the Republican nomination. Trump has so far managed to take over the Republican Party by legitimizing the ugliest face in the US.
* Domenico Maceri, PhD, is professor emeritus at Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria, California. Some of his articles have won awards from the National Association of Hispanic Publications.
