House GOP impeachment vote tests Biden’s support with influential voting bloc

President Joe Biden‘s family is complicating his path back to the White House, with House Republicans poised to formally approve an impeachment inquiry into him, his family, and their business dealings.

As much as the White House, the Biden campaign, and the candidate himself pushes back on the House Republican allegations, with less than a year until the 2024 election, every minute he spends talking about the possibility of impeachment is one less minute he can spend persuading people to vote for him next November.

LAGGING BIDEN LEANS ON POPULAR GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO FOR BOOST IN CRITICAL PENNSYLVANIA

House Republicans voting Wednesday on whether to formalize their impeachment inquiry into Biden raises questions about the president’s judgment regarding his family and their business dealings, particularly concerning his son Hunter, according to pollster David Paleologos.

That may put pressure on Biden, at the White House or on the campaign trail, to become more partisan, which independent voters may find unappealing, per Paleologos, director of Suffolk University’s Political Research Center. Biden outperformed former President Donald Trump among independents in 2020 by 13 percentage points, 54%-41%.

“Independent voters at that time saw Biden as a quieter, calmer alternative to Trump, who would use his experience to bring the political parties together, free of controversy, drama, and scandal,” Paleologos told the Washington Examiner. “It’s almost as if House Republicans are using this impeachment inquiry vote to draw Biden away from his most appealing qualities to voters.”

Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin agreed a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden could present a problem for the president in that his family and their business dealings will be “part of the discussion,” though the strategist reiterated that he had not seen any “remotely concrete” evidence of wrongdoing.

“If Biden is talking about this, he’s off message,” Hankin said. “I’m guessing there’s also the attempt to sort of be like, ‘Well, sure, Trump’s dealing with trials, but Biden’s under impeachment proceeding. And so it’s trying to make an equivalency.”

“Look, he’s got a problematic kid,” he added. “Trump has problematic kids. Trump’s problematic kids were working in the White House.”

Hankin did concede trading off the Biden last name was “absolutely” “questionable” and “very poor form” though “not illegal.” Regardless, he was confident that “anyone who talks themselves out of voting for Biden” because of formal impeachment inquiry “probably wasn’t gonna vote for Biden anyways.”

Northeastern University political science chair and professor Costas Panagopoulos similarly downplayed the consequences of a formal impeachment inquiry on Biden with independent voters, contending it may have more ramifications for House Republicans.

“Biden allegations also pale in comparison to Trump’s transgressions, and will only reinforce for voters how serious Trump’s abuses were compared to what the GOP claims Biden has done if Republicans cannot prove that Biden did anything wrong,” he said. “If it becomes purely about political mudslinging, Trump will be at a serious disadvantage with truly independent voters who are already skeptical about the GOP’s dishonesty and hypocrisy under Trump.

After the White House tried to distance Biden from the House GOP’s informal impeachment inquiry commenced by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy amid federal government shutdown negotiations last fall, the administration and Biden’s campaign have started providing sharper responses to the investigation. Before that, the White House Office of the General Counsel and Biden’s personal lawyers were more prepared to mount more strident defenses. For example, the former has repeatedly underscored a lack of evidence, despite having access to witness testimony and documents.

“The only, single fact in this entire sham impeachment exercise is that it’s a nakedly transparent ploy by House MAGA Republicans to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign,” Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler wrote in a lengthy memo Tuesday. “The only branch of government MAGA Republicans control is following through on Donald Trump’s promise to use the levers of government to enact political retribution on his enemies. You know, like the followers of a dictator.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“I am not going to weigh in on that process except to say that President Biden is laser-focused on the issues that matter most to American families,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates added earlier this week. “He’s focused on what matters to American families, not [Georgia Republican Rep.] Marjorie Taylor Greene‘s conspiracy theories about his own family.”

Biden, himself, did not react to shouted questions about the House Republican impeachment inquiry vote after his joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Tuesday.

Trump, the 2024 Republican primary front-runner, has an average 2.4 percentage point lead over Biden, 44.2% to 46.6%, per RealClearPolitics. Simultaneously, an Associated Press poll found in October most adults believed Biden at least acted unethically related to Hunter’s business dealings, while only a third supported the impeachment inquiry.