Hey Kevin, that’s not how impeachment works

House Republicans open a baseless, illegitimate inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced that the U.S. House of Representatives would open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The Republican members of the House claim that President Biden was involved in the illicit business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. Republicans in the House could not provide any evidence to back up this claim.
Rumors surrounding President Biden and his son have swirled within conservative circles since 2019 when former President Donald Trump was impeached for the first time for trying to coerce Ukrainian president Volodomir Zelensky to open an investigation into Joe Biden in exchange for military and economic aid. However, no investigations into Joe Biden — which have been prolific since Republicans took control of the House seven months ago — have ever been able to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by the current president. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has subpoenaed over 12,000 pages of documents recounting Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. They found no evidence of wrongdoing by the president. They accessed the hard drive from Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, which produced no link between Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the president. Lev Parnas, right-hand man to America’s saddest mayor and leaking bottle of Worcestershire sauce, Rudy Guiliani, wrote to members of the House of Representatives that the conspiracy surrounding the Bidens was a “wild goose chase.” Even one of Hunter Biden’s former business partners who testified before the House Oversight Committee stated that Joe Biden was never involved in any of his son’s business dealings. There is no substantive reason for this impeachment inquiry to exist, but Republicans do not seem to care.
Republicans are opening this impeachment inquiry without any evidence supporting their decision. House Republicans are making no specific allegations of wrongdoing against the president. Instead, Republicans seem to be opening this inquiry based on feelings alone. Maryland Representative Jamey Raskin described this process as a “dark authoritarian underworld where anyone can accuse anybody of anything.”
There are many questions surrounding whether McCarthy even has the power to unilaterally open an impeachment inquiry. According to a decision made by the Department of Justice in 2019, the House cannot proceed with a legitimate impeachment inquiry without passing it through a floor vote. Without holding and passing a vote to open this inquiry, the impeachment inquiry has no power to subpoena documents or call witnesses. McCarthy himself made this point when Democrats opened their impeachment inquiry against former President Trump in 2019. He repeated this point as little as two weeks ago, yet on Tuesday, Sept. 12, McCarthy appeared to do a complete 180.
McCarthy has opened an illegitimate impeachment inquiry into the President of the United States with absolutely no substantial evidence. This diminishes not only the credibility of the House Republican Caucus (if such credibility ever existed in the first place) but also undermines the importance of impeachment as a process of accountability. Is this going to become standard Congressional procedure? Is every president with a divided government going to face an impeachment inquiry? Is impeachment simply going to become yet another tool of partisanship and polarization? Is “being unpopular amongst the opposition party’s base” now a high crime or misdemeanor?
If you think the answer to these questions is no, then I would encourage you to reach out to your member of Congress. The names and phone numbers of members of the Oklahoma delegation to the House of Representatives are listed below.
Kevin Hern, District One (Tulsa): 918-935-3222
Josh Brecheen, District Two (Claremore/Muskogee): 918-283-6262
Frank Lucas, District Three (Yukon/Cheyenne): 405-373-1958
Tom Cole, District Four (Norman/Ada): 580-357-2131
Stephanie Bice, District Five (OKC): 405-300-6890