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Personal U.S. Senator from Delaware 47th Vice President of the United States Vice presidential campaigns 46th President of the United States Incumbent Tenure |
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The 46th and incumbent U.S. president Joe Biden has seen multiple efforts by some members of the Republican Party to impeach him. An impeachment inquiry into Biden was launched in September 2023, without a vote, by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who designated three House committees led by James Comer, chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. A number of prominent Republican lawmakers, along with Donald Trump and some of his political allies, have indicated the motivation behind efforts to impeach Biden is also driven by resentment over Trump's previous two impeachments.
There has often been a lack of consensus among supporters of impeachment as to what the root offenses for an impeachment should be. Issues that have been floated by prominent proponents have included Biden's handling of illegal immigration at the United States–Mexico border, the handling of the United States' withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Biden's extension of a federal COVID-19 eviction moratorium, other COVID-19 pandemic-related actions of Biden, business dealings of Biden's son Hunter (incorporating allegations of the Biden–Ukraine conspiracy theory), Biden's energy policy, the Joe Biden classified documents incident, and the accusation that Biden is "weaponizing" the government.
During the Democratic-controlled 117th United States Congress, Republican members submitted nine resolutions to impeach Biden, although expressed support for these resolutions was limited among Republicans in the United States House of Representatives, as none of these resolutions had more than seven cosponsors, and a number had no cosponsors. More than half of the resolutions were submitted by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who submitted the first impeachment resolution on the first full day of Biden's presidency. Ahead of the 2022 United States House of Representatives elections, many news outlets predicted that impeachment might receive high priority from House Republicans if they retook the majority. However, after Republicans won a much weaker majority than many had predicted they would, many news outlets expected that the prospects of an impeachment were less likely. Several resolutions to impeach were introduced in the Republican-majority 118th United States Congress, but these did not advance beyond committee and have received very few co-sponsors.
On July 24, 2023, Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy stated that he sees House investigations into Biden as likely to justify a future impeachment inquiry. McCarthy launched such an inquiry on September 12, 2023, doing so without holding a House vote. There have also been differing degrees of efforts to impeach other Biden administration officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Secretary Mayorkas was impeached in February 2024.
Despite neither the earlier Comer committee investigation nor the impeachment inquiry finding evidence of wrongdoing by the president, on December 13, 2023, the United States House of Representatives voted 221–212, along party lines, to approve a resolution that formalized the inquiry.[1] By March 2024 the impeachment inquiry was winding down, having found no evidence to proceed.[2]