Joe Biden has not been impeached. Video shows House vote on articles in June | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: President Joe Biden was impeached in October 2023

An Oct. 25 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a TikTok video of a congressman announcing the results of a vote in the House of Representatives.

“BREAKING – Biden has been impeached in congress today,” the text over the video reads. “No word in mainstream. Mountains of evidence being sent over to congress.” A second text block also shows the word “Today!!”

It was shared more than 200 times in one day. The original TikTok video was shared more than 100 times in one day.

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Our rating: False

President Joe Biden has not been impeached. The C-SPAN video is from June and shows the vote that sent articles of impeachment to two House of Representatives committees for review, not a vote to impeach him.

C-SPAN footage is from June

The TikTok video includes C-SPAN footage that shows Texas Republican Rep. Randy Weber Sr. presiding over a House vote. The word “today” is superimposed twice on the video, suggesting it is current.

But the footage is from June 22 – and it shows a vote to refer articles of impeachment against Biden to a pair of committees, not to actually impeach him.

Fact check: CNN, MSNBC and other outlets covered Biden impeachment inquiry, contrary to claim

Those articles were introduced June 13 by Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, for Biden’s actions involving immigration and the southern border. The video shows the 219-208 vote along party lines that sent those articles to the House’s Homeland Security and Judiciary committees.

The committees will decide whether to put those articles of impeachment to a vote of the full House. It takes a simple majority vote to impeach the president, according to the House website. Republicans presently hold 221 of the 435 seats, with two seats vacant.

If the House votes to impeach Biden, the Senate would then act as a court, hear evidence and vote to either acquit him or convict him and remove him from office, according to the Senate website. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote, unlikely in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican, in September also directed the House to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden over the business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden. The first hearing of that probe was held Sept. 28.

McCarthy was ousted from the speakership Oct. 3, paralyzing the House by leaving it without a speaker for more than three weeks. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected Oct. 25 to succeed him.

The claim echoes one USA TODAY debunked in July stating Biden had been impeached.

The House has impeached a president four times. Former President Donald Trump is the only one to be impeached twice, in 2019 and 2021. In both cases the Senate voted to acquit Trump.

The TikTok user who posted the video did not provide evidence to support the claim in a message to USA TODAY. USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared it but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden hasn't been impeached. Video shows vote on articles | Fact check