WASHINGTON — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's announcement of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Tuesday was the first step in a path that could lead to an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives, which has a slim Republican majority.
The transition from impeachment to impeachment in the Senate, a political process, not a criminal one, requires the approval of a two-thirds majority (66 votes) to convict and remove the president from office, or to vote for him innocent.
The U.S. Constitution provides for the possibility of impeaching a president for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes or misdemeanors," but Democrats have a majority in the Senate, and they will almost certainly overturn the proceedings if they reach that point.
To clarify the reasons for this announcement, Al Jazeera Net presents questions and answers related to the Republicans' desire to impeach President Biden, as follows:
In American history, there have been 6 attempts to impeach American presidents, but all of them have failed (Reuters)
Why do Kevin McCarthy's Republicans want to impeach President Joe Biden now?
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the start of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, and McCarthy said in a televised statement on Tuesday that there are "serious and credible allegations of President Biden's conduct" that "taken together" require further investigation.
The process of investigating, and then voting in the House of Representatives, is the first step in the formal procedures followed to remove the president - or any senior executive or judicial official - from office, and the voting process requires the votes of a simple majority in the US Senate to begin the trial, where a two-thirds majority (equivalent to 66 votes) is necessary for conviction and impeachment.
What charges can President Biden be impeached for?
In his statement on Tuesday, McCarthy leveled a series of charges against the president and the president's son, Hunter Biden, accusing the president of lying about his knowledge of his son's business dealings, saying that "members of the Biden family" received millions of dollars in payments from shell companies, and that the US Treasury Department described the transactions as suspicious.
The same statement noted that an FBI whistleblower alleged that Biden had taken a bribe in exchange for formal proceedings as vice president and that he had used his government office to coordinate with his son's business partners.
McCarthy also claimed that the Biden administration gave the president's family and associates special treatment during its investigations into possible criminal violations, but Republicans found no concrete evidence of the president's misconduct.
How did the House of Representatives get to this point?
The House speaker's move came nearly two months after a House committee heard testimony from two tax officials, who alleged that the Biden-era Justice Department blocked a more thorough investigation into the president's involvement in his son Hunter Biden's personal finances.
In late July, Republican Senator Chuck Grasley released an FBI document detailing how a credible intelligence source reported allegations that the Biden family received two payments of $5 million from a Ukrainian energy company after then-Vice President Biden pressured Ukraine to fire a senior government official in charge of investigating corruption.
Although IRS investigators have not provided the FBI with any document or conclusive evidence of illegal or inappropriate behavior by the president, House Republicans have maintained that the information is sufficient to launch a formal investigation.
What powers does the impeachment investigation have?
McCarthy said impeachment proceedings would give House Republicans "full authority to collect all the facts and answers of the American people," and as part of traditional investigative procedures, courts would give congressional committees greater power to issue and enforce subpoenas for documents and testimony when they issue those orders.
The speaker has previously been reluctant to endorse calls from some Republicans in the chamber to begin impeachment proceedings, saying it was too early to follow that path, despite coming under increasing pressure from right-wing members of his party to move more quickly. But McCarthy has changed course, despite a slim Republican majority in the House and a tough vote on government spending looming in the coming weeks.
Shortly after McCarthy's impeachment announcement, Republican Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz stepped up to the House chamber to express disappointment, saying, "This is a small step after weeks of pressure from conservatives in the House to do more, we must move faster."
Kevin McCarthy took over as Speaker of the US House of Representatives in January 2023 after 15 rounds of voting (Anadolu Agency)
Is passage of the impeachment bill in the House of Representatives a certainty?
Republicans have a slim majority in the chamber, 222 seats to Democrats' 212, and some centrist in the party, contemplating their tough re-election races in November 2024, have expressed unease about moving forward with a process that will only inflame America's political divisions.
What's next if the House of Representatives adopts President Biden's impeachment bill?
The House brings the bill to Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate, and the Senate trial of President Biden begins, which could take a few weeks.
The trial is presided over by Constitutional Court President Judge John Roberts, and all 100 senators who act as jurors and vote for or against impeachment must take part in the trial.
Can the Senate rule to impeach Biden?
With all Republicans (49 members to 51 for Democrats) voting in favor of impeachment, more than 20 Democratic senators are needed to pass a two-thirds majority.
Is there a role for Trump in pushing Republicans to start impeachment proceedings against Biden?
Trump, in particular, discussed impeachment of Biden with Republicans in the House of Representatives, and was pushing behind the scenes to support the Republican Party's move in the House of Representatives, to begin impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden.
The former president reportedly spoke weekly with House Republican convention chair Elise Stefanik, who was the first member of the Republican leadership to declare support for impeaching Biden. The two spoke Tuesday, the same day that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that Republicans would begin proceedings to investigate corruption allegations by Biden and his family.
What are the historical attempts to impeach U.S. presidents?
Since the inception of the United States 245 years ago, there have been 6 attempts to impeach the president, all of which ended in failure as follows:
- The first attempt: in 1840 against President John Taylor, who benefited from the outcome of the midterm congressional elections and the transfer of a majority to the president's party, which led to the quick end of the attempt.
- The second attempt: President Andrew Johnson was targeted in 1868 because of his dismissal of the beloved defense minister - at the time - Edmund Santon, and the impeachment resolution passed the House of Representatives, but it did not pass in the Senate because it received only 65 votes, one vote less than the required majority.
- The third attempt: Begun in 1973 as a result of the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon chose to resign when he realized that the Democratic majority could pass an impeachment resolution, given his low popularity and the difficulty of Republican defense.
- Fourth attempt: It took place in 1998 against President Bill Clinton, after he engaged in a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, and lied about this relationship, and the House of Representatives passed the impeachment law, but he failed to obtain a two-thirds majority in the Senate, and this was reflected in the rise in President Clinton's popularity significantly.
- The fifth attempt: took place in 2020 against President Donald Trump, after he was involved in his request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look for what harms his political opponent Joe Biden, and Trump threatened to cut aid to Ukraine if Zelensky did not meet his request, and the House of Representatives passed the impeachment law, but he failed to obtain a two-thirds majority in the Senate, and Trump was acquitted.
- The sixth attempt: It took place in 2021 against President Trump, days before the end of his term, for his role in the incident in which his supporters stormed the Capitol to obstruct the certification of the results of the presidential election, and the House of Representatives passed the impeachment bill, but he failed to obtain a two-thirds majority in the Senate trial, and Trump was acquitted.
With the failure of all previous attempts. Why impeaching the president?
During the House of Representatives' investigations into former President Donald Trump over linking his own interests and withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for opening investigations in his campaign's interest, Professor Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law expert at George Washington University, warned against making impeachment proceedings easier.
"If the House of Representatives continues to move toward impeachment over the Ukraine-related charges, it will be a direct message that the president can be impeached after a very short period of investigation, and with weak and flimsy evidence, compared to previous impeachments," Turley said in his intervention before the Judiciary Committee at the time.
Some commentators attributed the seriousness of Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's move to direct 3 committees to investigate allegations of President Biden's corruption to the desire for revenge, rehabilitation of President Trump, and insulting Biden.
Republicans know that impeachment is doomed to failure when the issue moves to the Senate, but they still insist on proceeding with it.