House Republicans‘ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden may be over before it gets to the floor after Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) pointed out inquiry leaders are lacking the votes needed to impeach the president.
“I happen to know there are like 20 Republicans who are not in favor of a Biden impeachment,” Bacon told Politico. “Mainly because it smells bad what he did, it looks bad, but when you ask them what crime is committed — they can’t tell you.”
The impeachment inquiry hit a speed bump last week when the chief witness Republicans had based their Biden family “alleged criminal scheme” on was arrested and charged by the Justice Department for lying about allegations made in an FBI form, referred to as an FD-1023.
Former FBI informant Alexander Smirnov alleged Joe and Hunter Biden had once accepted multimillion-dollar bribes in Ukraine, but now, the DOJ says those were lies. Smirnov was rearrested on Thursday in Las Vegas just two days after a judge released him, according to court documents.
Before Smirnov’s arrest, his allegations were still unproven, but Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) had latched on to them as evidence to propel the inquiry forward. They said they will continue to press forward with the investigation despite Democrats pressuring GOP leaders to call off their efforts.
Lawmakers sat with James Biden, the president’s younger brother, in an interview that stretched over eight hours on Wednesday. James Biden is considered one of their most high-profile witnesses. However, Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) called the interview a “subdued affair” and said “everyone knows the impeachment investigation is over.”
However, Jordan said on Wednesday that the remarks Joe Biden made in a speech to the Ukrainian Rada in 2015 are “fundamental facts” that are unchanged by Smirnov’s indictment.
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Sources told Politico that private briefings on the investigation have not been enough to sway GOP holdouts, as some worry continuing the inquiry could be detrimental to Republicans as they head into the 2024 election season — particularly if a failed, or even successful, impeachment attempt gives Joe Biden a boost in the polls.
Still, Republicans are continuing with testimonies. Hunter Biden is set to appear for a closed-door deposition on Feb. 28, and special counsel Robert Hur will testify in a public hearing on March 12 regarding his report on Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. GOP members also plan to interview lower-profile witnesses as they press forward to find more evidence.
