Senate Republicans doubt impeachment inquiry will end with Biden’s removal

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., directed the chairmen of three committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. McCarthy said House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct regarding his son’s overseas business dealings. 

“Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption,” McCarthy said when making the announcement Tuesday morning. 

The Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means Committees will lead the probe.

McCarthy is opening this impeachment inquiry without a vote by the full House. In 2019, McCarthy called on then Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to suspend the impeachment inquiry into President Trump. He asked Pelosi whether there would be a vote to proceed with the inquiry. McCarthy wrote, “By answering no, you would create a process completely devoid of any merit or legitimacy.”

READ⬇️ I’ve written to Speaker Pelosi to halt the impeachment inquiry until we can receive public answers to the following questions. Given the enormity of the question at hand—impeaching a duly elected president—the American public deserves fairness and transparency. pic.twitter.com/EFKOghyf9w

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) October 3, 2019

If Biden is impeached in the House, a trial in the Senate would determine whether he should be convicted and removed from office. But Senate Republicans have warned their House colleagues that this needs to be done by the book.  

“The American people deserve to know the truth and this all ought to be done in public. I mean, where you all can be there, report on it, not behind closed doors, not a bunch of hearsay ‘well, so and so told me that’ — no, no, no. Put it out there in public and let the American people decide,” Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said. 

“If they’ve got facts and evidence, if they want to run through a traditional process, we’ll see what the result is. I don’t think that it’s going to result in the removal on the Senate side. But if there’s meaningful information that they think the American people need to know about, I’m okay with it,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said. 

Tillis is not the only Republican who questions whether an impeachment could lead to a removal. 

“We’ve only got a year left, you know, to the election. I don’t know whether they’ve got enough time. I know I sat through one impeachment trial, I don’t want to sit through another one,” Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., said Sept. 6. 

Tuberville said he hopes the House case is “rock solid.” 

The House needs a simple majority vote to impeach. Removal requires a two-thirds vote in the Senate, so for that to happen, Democrats would have to vote against the president.