Will Joe Biden be impeached? Democrats issue warning as House Republicans prepare to approve investigation

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are gearing up to formally authorize their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. But House Democrats are crying foul, arguing their GOP colleagues have decided impeaching the president is inevitable.

“They are on a super slippery slope to vote for impeachment because they’re not going to start this thing unless they vote for it,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Monday.

House Republicans, however, have pushed back that impeachment is a predetermined fate. They say GOP investigators are continuing their inquiry against Biden as a fact-finding mission.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Tuesday said GOP lawmakers don't want to “prejudge” any decisions.

“We’re not making a political decision, it’s not. It’s a legal decision,” Johnson said at a weekly press conference. “We can’t prejudge the outcome. The Constitution does not permit us to do so. We have to follow the truth where it takes us."

Republicans allege Biden financially benefited from his family’s foreign business dealings but have yet to produce evidence directly implicating the president.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., one of 17 vulnerable Republicans hailing from districts Biden won in 2020, said Tuesday the president has “probably not” committed high crimes or misdemeanors, considered impeachable offenses.

Bacon, who noted he may be an “outlier,” also said “it was more likely than not” Republicans wouldn't draft articles of impeachment against the president. Instead, he argued, the inquiry will provide information for undecided voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

Regardless, the investigation could be subject to legal hurdles. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., opened the inquiry against Biden in September without a formal vote in the House. At the time, he cited a precedent House Democrats set in 2019 when they opened their inquiry into former President Donald Trump without a floor vote.

That argument hasn't convinced the Biden administration. The White House has dismissed the probe, citing a Trump-era Justice Department opinion declaring any impeachment inquiry that hasn't come up for a vote in the lower chamber invalid.

A formal green light from the House, Republicans hope, would bolster the investigation’s standing in court, should they face a legal battle.

Some of the conference’s most conservative members also contend that the inquiry is simply an investigation, and impeachment proceedings should not include an assumed outcome.

“It’s just getting the information,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, said. Norman said it was entirely “possible” the House ends the inquiry without drafting articles of impeachment.

Other House Democrats still hold that Republicans’ intentions are clear.

“They wouldn’t be doing this if they didn’t intend to bring (impeachment) to the floor,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said. “This is not an inconsequential exercise. Their intention is to follow this all the way.”

Chair of the pragmatic Main Street Caucus, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., dismissed Democrats' concerns and chalked up their arguments as "spin."

“The Constitution provides the House with oversight authority. It doesn’t say that every time you do oversight, that there has to be some sort of smoking gun,” he said.

Opinion from the House speaker: Evidence against Biden can't be ignored. We're pursuing impeachment inquiry.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Biden be impeached? Democrats cry foul as GOP preps for inquiry