Biden impeachment inquiry collides with shutdown chaos. Will the GOP pay a price?

WASHINGTON − Voters are divided over the House GOP's impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, an effort that kicked off this week against the backdrop of lawmaker fights over a possible government shutdown.

House Republicans could face backlash as they pursue the impeachment inquiry on the eve of a potential government shutdown Sunday that could leave some families without child care, housing and food and cause furloughs among thousands of federal workers who live paycheck to paycheck.

The House Oversight Committee held its first impeachment inquiry hearing Thursday.

Polls show Americans are split on the impeachment inquiry, with Republicans overwhelmingly supporting it and Democrats opposing it.

Surveys also show that by a wide margin, voters want lawmakers to avoid a shutdown and view Republicans as bearing more of the blame for the impasse than Biden or Democratic lawmakers.

Some voters told USA TODAY they are far more concerned about programs to support families on assistance, the rising cost of living and household debt than they are about the impeachment inquiry.

“I'm concerned about the kids who may not get their school lunches,” Rachelle Armstrong, 74, a Democrat in Plattsburgh, New York, told USA TODAY. “The people who are on assistance. All the least fortunate people will be the ones who suffer, and then I'm also worried about government employees being laid off.”

But other voters agree with the decision to devote time to the impeachment inquiry.

“You go anywhere in this country and look at the prices on stuff that the everyday person buys, and that should pretty well tell you why me and everybody else wants Biden out of office," Kenny Meyer, 65, a Republican in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, told USA TODAY.

In a memo from Reps. James Comer, R-Ky., Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Jason Smith, R-Mo., the lawmakers said the panel would investigate whether Biden abused his federal office at the time he was vice president “to enrich his family” through foreign business dealings and conceal his family’s misconduct.

“The purpose of this inquiry − and at this stage, it is just that, an inquiry,” reads the memo.

During the hearing, Republicans tried to make the case for their impeachment inquiry by invoking Hunter Biden's overseas businesses while Democrats accused them of not having enough evidence to move forward. Four witnesses also testified to the group and said there isn't sufficient evidence to impeach Biden.

Meanwhile, House Republicans remain divided on the spending fight as conservative lawmakers have advocated for more cuts and blocked House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s attempts to pass a stopgap measure that would temporarily fund the government.

Here’s a closer look at what voters say on the impeachment inquiry and the shutdown battle.

What voters are saying about the impeachment inquiry and shutdown?

Armstrong told USA TODAY she thought the impeachment inquiry was “ill advised.” She believes lawmakers have suspicions but not facts that typically make up the starting point of an investigation for impeachment and added that holding a hearing Thursday amid a looming government shutdown was “irresponsible.”

“I think that is so symptomatic of … the type of the way in which real issues are being ignored in favor of issues that they're drumming up in order to promote their agenda, which, essentially, is to distrust the government.”

Dalton Harp, 32, a cleaning company owner in Fremont, Ohio, said the impeachment inquiry is “getting a little out of hand” and believes "they're doing whatever they can" to try to get Biden out of office.

He also said that lawmakers should focus on making health care and housing affordable to all Americans and that it was too soon to tell whether a shutdown would affect him.

“Who knows what that's going to look like when taxes come?” Harp said. “So that is like the part where it leaves me a little curious, like, what's the tax going to look like for my business?”

Lynn Laughter, 72, a Republican in Dalton, Georgia, said she is “greatly disappointed in both parties.”

“It seems like all they're really interested in is pointing fingers at each other and not getting about the business of running our country and doing what's best for our country,” said Laughter, a certified financial consultant who was the first female chairman of the Whitfield County Board of Commissioners.

She said lawmakers should be focused on averting a shutdown rather than holding an impeachment inquiry hearing. As a consultant, she helps manage money for clients' retirement or children’s college fund.

“Having a government shutdown will be catastrophic for my clients, and I'm greatly disturbed about that,” Laughter said.

On the other hand, some voters say the impeachment inquiry is a must. Craig Wenninger, 41, a Republican in Shelby, Ohio, said Biden should have been impeached "a long time ago" for his alleged involvement in the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.

"I think they need to hold him responsible for what he's done,” Wenninger said.

He added that to him, it didn't matter when the impeachment inquiry hearing was being held. "The sooner, the better," he said.

'Struggling in fear': Shutdown and inquiry stoke anger, fear

The impeachment inquiry hearing and looming government shutdown have also raised a mix of emotions among those who could be affected.

Sami Bourma, 54, a food service worker at the National Institutes of Health and a member of the union UNITE HERE, said that the last time he was hit by a shutdown, in 2018 under the Trump administration, it was “terrifying.” He recalled how the shutdown happened a week after he returned from vacation, and his wife was pregnant at the time.

“We come back from vacation with no money and my bills were sitting on the table … some of them haven't (been) opened to see which one I would start first,” said Bourma, a Democrat who lives in Arlington, Va. “And we got that shutdown for over than 30 days without income, so it was kind of a terrifying. ... I don't know how it's happened and what they are thinking to put the people in a situation like that.”

Bourma, who is also an Uber driver and has three kids, said the first job of lawmakers is to ensure their citizens are able to go to work and have food on the table before discussing other matters like impeachment.

“There’s some people who (are) living paycheck by paycheck. There’s some people, they live day by day. If you cut them out from their job, they (are) in trouble. … People get up and put the time and vote for you and put you in office, and here we are struggling.”

Wanda Callahan, 66, a Democrat in Dallas, Georgia, and self-employed consultant, called the impeachment inquiry hearing “ridiculous.”

“We all have kids that have messed up. But that doesn't mean that we're accountable for what they've done. So whatever Hunter’s done, I don't think, you know, Joe should be accountable for it.”

She added that her business and her clients who work for the government would be hurt by the shutdown.

“Instead of calling for my services, you know, people have to pay their bills, put food on the table, and if their paychecks or their money or their benefits that they're used to getting doesn't come in ... you're certainly not going have money to call consulting,” said Callahan, who is semi-retired.

Are the GOP at risk? What the polls show about shutdown, impeachment

Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute, said in a summary of the findings of a September poll that “the vast majority of Americans want to avoid a shutdown.”

“The faction who does not want any compromise may represent a small proportion of the public, but they hold outsized influence in the U.S. Capitol,” Murray said.

The Monmouth poll found that nearly 64% of the public “wants members of Congress who best represent their own views on spending priorities to compromise on those principles in order to avoid a shutdown,” while 31% say like-minded people should stick to their spending principles.

The poll showed 43% of Americans would hold Republicans in Congress most responsible, higher than the 21% who would blame congressional Democrats. But another 27% would blame Biden.

A survey by The Economist/YouGov found that 29% of voters would blame Republicans in Congress for a shutdown, while 14% would blame Democrats in Congress and 13% would blame Biden.

Meanwhile, a Wall Street Journal poll earlier this month found that 52% of voters oppose impeaching Biden, while 41% are in favor.

Likewise, a YouGov poll found that 31% of voters strongly oppose impeaching Biden, while 29% of voters strongly support it. Forty-one percent of voters say the impeachment inquiry is a “politically motivated attempt to embarrass Joe Biden,” while 28% of voters say it is a “serious attempt to find out what really happened,” according to a YouGov poll.

Along party lines, an NBC poll found that 88% of Democrats oppose the impeachment inquiry hearings, while 73% of Republicans support them.

An impeachment inquiry will likely rally the GOP base and may increase partisan turnout, according to Kevin Wagner, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University. But it can also alienate moderate independents and Democrats.

“It will hurt Republicans running in more moderate districts and maximize votes in areas that they are already likely to win,” Wagner said. “Crossover votes are important in the general election, and the inquiry is likely to hurt efforts to broaden the base, especially in battleground states."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Impeachment inquiry collides with shutdown chaos. Will GOP pay a price?