In recent polling shared by Fox News, a large portion of respondents called the prospective impeachment proceedings that some House Republicans want — and have partly now materialized — targeting President Joe Biden a “bogus” ploy to undermine his presidency. The polling was completed December 13.
Asking about what the pollsters called potential “impeachment proceedings,” the question was as follows: “Which better describes your view — this is a legitimate action on a serious matter or it’s a bogus attempt to undermine Biden’s presidency?” Respondents were nearly evenly split, with 48 percent characterizing the push as a partisan endeavor and 49 percent calling it something legitimate. The opinion that the impeachment push is “bogus” soared past the perspective it’s legitimate in subgroups like Black respondents.
The current status of the impeachment push targeting Biden is that of a formal inquiry following a recent vote by the House in which the GOP majority gave its unified support, though Republicans had already been conducting such an inquiry on a more informal basis, meaning without an officially authorizing vote having been taken by the full House. The idea is that Republicans are looking at whether actual impeachment is warranted, though there has been no evidence uncovered that actually links the president to the ostensible corruption around business dealings of family members of his that’s been such a GOP focus.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pointed out some of the arguable problems with the GOP approach. “Before launching a formal impeachment inquiry, we waited until the evidence was sufficient to justify such a serious step. This GOP inquiry is an impeachment with a target, but no high crime in sight. And the only misdemeanor, belongs to those who initiated it,” he said on X, formerly called Twitter.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a key ally in the Senate for House Republicans’ investigative efforts, recently admitted he knew of no evidence confirming presidential corruption in this context. Grassley told CNN: “I’m going to take the same position I’ve taken since 2019 that all I can say is there’s some indication of maybe some compromise, with China particularly. But I have no evidence of it. And I’m going to just follow the facts where they are. And the facts haven’t taken me to that point where I can say that the president’s guilty of anything.”
