On Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said that the House of Representatives needs to discuss the possibility of impeaching Joe Biden.
Jordan cited the border crisis as the key issue justifying impeachment but says there needs to be agreement among the entire Republican caucus.
“I think that’s definitely a discussion we have to have,” Jordan told the Washington Times. “The conference has to decide. You have to have complete buy-in from the entire conference and leadership of our conference.”
Earlier this year, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that impeachment was possible should Republicans regain control of the House after the 2022 midterm elections—which appears likely at this point. Cruz also said that Republicans should pursue impeachment “whether it is justified or not” because of the precedent that Democrats set with Trump.
“Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after Trump because they disagreed with him. And one of the real disadvantages of doing that … is the more you weaponize it and turn it into a partisan cudgel, you know, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
Cruz has a point, but revenge alone is not a good reason to impeach. Just as Republicans would have been more than justified to turn the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearings into a circus, as Democrats had with the Kavanaugh hearings, they didn’t. The House could impeach Joe Biden for multiple legitimate reasons, including recommitting the United States to illegal treaties and threatening to withhold aid from then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani unless he lied about the Taliban’s status in the country. I seem to recall Democrats impeaching Trump over allegations that he withheld aid from Ukraine—which turned out to be false—so it would be hard for Democrats not to look like hypocrites over that issue.
Related: Five Impeachable Offenses of Joe Biden
Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed articles of impeachment the day after Biden took office, citing abuse of power that occurred while he was vice president. However, calls for Biden’s impeachment really ramped up after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban because of Joe Biden’s incompetence. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called it “dereliction of duty by the commander-in-chief” and said that Biden’s actions would make it harder for the U.S. to fight future wars. “Who’s going to help us in the future after we abandoned our friends in Afghanistan who fought bravely?”
But of course, impeachment won’t happen while Democrats are still in power. But, should Republicans win later this year, the odds are very good that impeachment will happen. In fact, Republicans would also likely have the support of American voters behind them. A Rasmussen Reports survey from January found that 50% of likely voters support impeaching Biden, compared to 45% who oppose it. Even 50% of black voters, a typically solid Democrat demographic, supported impeaching Biden in the survey.
Impeaching Joe Biden is definitely a discussion that needs to take place. There are far more justifiable reasons for impeaching Biden than there ever were for impeaching Donald Trump.
I don’t like the politicization of impeachment any more than Cruz or Jordan, but we have legitimate reasons for pursuing the impeachment of Biden. Sure, a conviction in the U.S. Senate is unlikely even if Republicans have the majority, but at least Biden will be “impeached forever,” as Nancy Pelosi would say.