On Friday, Republicans in the US House of Representatives took initial steps to isolate President Joe Biden. Accusing him of abusing his power and failing to perform his duties as the President of the United States.
The House of Representatives has passed a bill to investigate alleged wrongdoing against President Biden and his family. The investigation will be referred to the Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees.
The bill was passed on a partisan basis, with 219 Republican members voting for it and 208 Democratic members voting against it.
If both committees voted to approve the start of a formal vote in the House of Representatives to impeach the US President, then the House will proceed to officially vote on the bill.
According to the US Constitution, a president may face impeachment and removal from office for committing “high crimes and misdemeanors”.
On the other hand, senior Democrats contended that House Republicans’ actions this week demonstrated the party’s subservience to “Maga extremism” (Make America Great Again) and Donald Trump.
On Wednesday, the Republicans voted to censure Representative Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, who has been one of the harshest critics of former President Trump for his role in the investigations.
House Democratic Minority Leader, Hakeem Jefferies, accused House Republicans of prioritizing extremism, conspiracy theories, and loyalty to Donald Trump. He made these remarks during a press conference on Thursday.
There is no precedent for impeaching an American president
In American history, only three presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998, and Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021. However, each of them was ultimately acquitted. This marks an unprecedented event in the history of the American presidency.
In 1974, Richard Nixon decided to resign to evade an imminent impeachment by Congress about the Watergate scandal.
