House moves toward Biden impeachment as DeSantis warns vote could backfire

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) dug into Greek mythology to warn House Republicans about the danger of impeaching President Joe Biden.

The House is moving toward voting to open an impeachment inquiry against Biden sometime next week despite warnings from the 2024 hopeful that an impeachment could ultimately be a trap that distracts the GOP from issues that matter to the voters he’s speaking with on the campaign trail.

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“When I’m going through Iowa, Republican voters obviously are not fond of Joe Biden. Yes, they’re concerned about Hunter and all this money. But they’re more concerned about what’s happening at our border. They’re more concerned about what’s happening with the economy,” DeSantis said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.

“Make sure you’re not ignoring all these other issues,” the Florida governor continued. “And don’t use that inquiry as kind of a Trojan horse to not then meet your responsibilities on all these other things.”

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While DeSantis also said investigating the “corrupt” Biden family is “justifiable,” he warned congressional leaders about pursuing an inquiry that doesn’t lead anywhere if it means taking the focus off of policy objectives.

“A lot of times impeachment proceedings don’t benefit the party doing it, particularly if it’s Republicans,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told the Washington Examiner. “I think we probably have about as many opinions as there are members, but my personal view of it is that the House is at a point where they would almost be negligent if they didn’t pursue impeachment proceedings.”

“I don’t know how you avoid it,” he added of the inquiry taking place ahead of the 2024 election. “It’s not always convenient when these things come up, but you also don’t get to pick the time sometimes when things come up.”

Another GOP senator who has publicly supported the House’s impeachment effort told the Washington Examiner that concern about possible backlash “varies widely” within the Republican conference.

“Look, there are always Republican senators who are scared of their own shadow. Thankfully, I hope, House Republicans will not be listening to those voices of fear but instead will stand up and do the right thing,” the senator said.

Strictly speaking, the inquiry is unlikely to lead to Biden’s removal from office. Impeachment requires only a simple majority in the House, but removal from office requires two-thirds of the Senate, or 67 votes, a nearly impossible hurdle in the ideologically even upper chamber.

Nonetheless, the House is expected to vote to authorize its impeachment inquiry into Biden next week, according to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).

“We’ve come to this inflection point. The White House is stonewalling,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference. “We will be at the apex of our constitutional authority.”

Johnson added that he believes “moderates in our conference understand this is not a political decision” but a “constitutional decision.”

DeSantis has made much of personally visiting all 99 counties in Iowa ahead of next month’s caucus, and his comments may reflect the on-the-ground feedback he has received during those stops. Still, his polling numbers are less encouraging, with DeSantis drawing 13.2% in the latest RealClearPolitics average, less than half of his support from the spring and 48 points behind front-runner former President Donald Trump.

Whether it’s a GOP Trojan horse or not, the Biden White House has engaged fully in the impeachment debate, releasing an 18-page memo to hit back at Republicans.

“Americans already overwhelmingly believe House Republicans are prioritizing the wrong things,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said, adding that the GOP is focusing on debunked claims “instead of focusing on the issues they claimed they would prioritize when they ran for office, like lowering inflation, growing the economy, and strengthening national security.”

The White House also says even many Republicans do not believe the current evidence would support articles of impeachment, though House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) says he’s confident he has the votes to move forward.

If the public does believe House Republicans are prioritizing the wrong things by going after impeachment, it could play out well for Biden. The president is struggling with low approval ratings on a host of issues, most especially the economy. His approval rating on that topic is just 38.4%, and the White House seems to have abandoned the “Bidenomics” push it launched over the summer.

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Republican strategist John Feehery agrees with DeSantis’s assessment.

“Impeachment is a huge distraction,” he said. “Most members are rolling their eyes because they know that voters don’t really care about Hunter Biden. They care about Bidenflation.”