POLITICS
How long will the impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden take? What happens now?
The president is under pressure from the Republican party after an investigation has been levied against the Biden family. What does it mean?
Without a single vote in Congress, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced he is launching an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. Specifically, they relate to supposed corruption between the president and his son, Hunter. There has been no evidence found after nine months of prior investigations.
“These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption,” McCarthy said.
Just twelve days ago, McCarthy said he would only launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden with a vote in the House, “not through a declaration by one person.” He also stated in 2019 that the speaker “cannot decide unilaterally” to impeach a president.
The awkward about-face shows the weakness of the slim Republican majority in the House; should the vote have failed it would almost certianly have cost McCarthy his job.
How do impeachment inquiries work against presidents?
Now that the impeachment proceedings have begun, it will be referred to the House Judiciary Committee. This committee conducts an investigation and holds hearings to determine if there is enough evidence to support the articles of impeachment.
If the Judiciary Committee approves articles of impeachment, they are sent to the full House for a vote. A simple majority of more than 50 of representatives is required to pass each article. If one or more articles pass, the President is officially impeached by the House. This could be likely considering that Republicans hold a majority in the lower house, though not all members are supportive of impeachment at this stage.
After impeachment by the House, the case moves to the Senate for a trial. The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides over the trial, the Senate acts as the jury, and the House members who impeached the President act as prosecutors.
A two-thirds majority vote, 67 out of 100 Senators, in the Senate is required to convict the President and remove them from office. This is nigh impossible, meaning Biden could be impeached but would not be removed from office, similar to what happened to Donald Trump twice during his presidency.
This whole process could take up to a month, based upon the last impeachment trial of Donald Trump which took a similar amount of time.