When Republicans make noises about impeaching Biden as soon as he gets into office if he’s elected, it’s probably something we don’t really have to worry about…
We should preface this by saying we are not supporting Biden, at least not right now.
We have a distinct recollection of something that seems to have virtually disappeared into a fading memory of history. And it’s why some people we met during 2016 ultimately didn’t feel it was worth the effort to vote for Hillary Clinton.
They believed that because of Republicans’ unyielding fixation with emails and Benghazi, were Hillary elected, she’d be hamstrung from the get-go: tied up in endless hearings and investigations that would utterly overshadow her Presidency. And turn Washington into an ineffectual yet highly annoying mess. Making sure she didn’t get any work done or accomplish anything. Leading into the 2016 election, Republicans had already been running that game plan, fierce and unrelenting, and were actively intensifying their efforts day by day. Spearheaded by a small deliriously frenzied group of Republicans, prominently featuring now Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (who was then a member of the House Select Committee On Benghazi).
Despite what Republicans want you to think, Biden wouldn’t be running that risk if he becomes President, for a couple of reasons (although he’s going to be hammered on it if he is the nominee, so might be a reason not to nominate him, but if he is nominated, won’t be a reason not to vote for him like it was, for some, with Hillary):
- There was a very good chance had Hillary Clinton won, she would’ve faced a Republican-controlled House and Senate. It’s possible, but it seems very unlikely that Democrats could win the Presidency this time around without also hanging on to control of the House.
- Absolutely, if the Senate remains Republican-controlled, which is a more likely scenario, though hardly set in stone (that’s why we vote!), they would launch myriad investigations into Biden and his son and Ukraine, etc. But based on Trump’s precedent, Biden could now just ignore all of that and refuse to cooperate with little fear of repercussion (except among those who are not supporting him now anyway). Are he or his son culpable for anything more than extremely bad judgment? Guess what? Doesn’t matter anymore at that point.
Would Biden or any Democrat actually be able to get anything done with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still at the helm in the Senate? Or even get a Supreme Court nominee approved were that to come up? And with the added chaos-factor of Trump running around constantly rabble-rousing in the background (as he perhaps prepared for a comeback in 2024–which would be perfectly legal, although he’d be very old)?
That’d come down to a test of how good a politician the new President is, if it’s not Trump, and how far down the tubes this democracy has gone.