Scoop: Democrats dare GOP to impeach Biden
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President Biden speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Aug. 19. Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images.
House Democrats are effectively inviting a hardline Republican to go rogue and force a vote to impeach President Biden in the final weeks of the 2024 election.
Why it matters: Top House Democrats are in rare agreement with their Republican counterparts that an impeachment vote would damage GOP attempts to hang onto control of the House.
- "The whole investigation has been a debacle for them, they have egg all over their face," said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who is House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' (D-N.Y.) point-man on impeachment as ranking member of the Oversight Committee.
- The vote, he argued, would "either prove that all of them are invested in this nonsense, or that they can't even ... get all the Republicans in the House to vote for it."
Driving the news: Top House Republicans and swing-district GOP lawmakers are furious about the prospect of a Trump ally like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) or Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) forcing a vote to impeach Biden, Axios' Juliegrace Brufke reported.
- An Oversight Committee report last week accused Biden of "impeachable conduct" related to his family's business dealings but fell short of providing evidence of specific criminal wrongdoing.
- Multiple lawmakers on the party's right flank quickly reacted by calling for an impeachment vote when the House returns in September.
- Under House rules, any single member can bypass leadership and force votes on impeachment and other similar measures.
What they're saying: "Call the vote. They should do that. That vote is a paved road to the minority," Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) told Axios, noting many Republicans "have never wanted to do the vote."
- If Republicans succeed in impeaching Biden in the House, Moskowitz said, Senate Democrats should hold a trial to "call their bluff. ... We should make them own it, every day on TV."
- Raskin told Axios: "If they actually take it to a vote, then individual [Republican] members are going to be politically punished."
Between the lines: A Democratic leadership source noted that all this would be playing out in the critical last stages of the 2024 election, providing fodder for the party to paint vulnerable Republicans as extreme.
- Several Democratic strategists said the vote would add to a broader narrative of Republicans being in thrall to Trump, Greene and other right-wing figures who have pushed impeachment.
- Raskin argued the blowback wouldn't be confined to Republican incumbents, predicting GOP candidates for Congress will be grilled on how they would vote on impeachment.
Zoom in: With Vice President Kamala Harris now at the top of the ticket, Democrats would be freed up to focus more of their energy on attacking Republicans than defending Biden.
- "If they want to show that their top issue is impeaching Joe Biden, a lame-duck president, then we should make them own it. We're not going to go on the defense, we're going to go on the offense," Moskowitz said.
- One Democratic strategy will be using their floor time to "remind people of all of the Trump shenanigans," Moskowitz said.
What to watch: One House Republican, speaking to Axios on the condition of anonymity, predicted there would be enough GOP defections to kill any impeachment vote forced by a hardliner.
- But some Republicans in battleground districts are keeping an open mind.
- "I will look at it closely. There has been a great deal of process accomplished in the impeachment inquiry," Rep. John Duarte (R-Calif.) told Axios.
