The Case against Impeaching Biden
Impeaching Biden will make a mockery of the impeachment process.
Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
From any objective measure, the United States pull out of Afghanistan has been a disaster. Thousands of Americans weren’t evacuated beforehand, US equipment is in the hands of the Taliban and now this devastating terrorist attack, resulting in the death of 13 US service members including 11 Marines, over a 100 Afghan civilian deaths and many more American and Afghan injuries. Many on the right are now (more than even before) calling for the impeachment of President Biden. However, I do not view this as grounds for impeachment, here are my reasons why.
Reason number 1: Sets up impeachment to become a partisan game.
Many argue Democrats have already made impeachment partisan with impeaching Trump twice, however both were bipartisan with Senator Mitt Romney being the first senator to vote to convict a president of their own party in Trump's first impeachment trial and Trump's Second impeachment being the most by bipartisan in American history with 10 Republicans voting to impeach in the house and 7 to convict in the Senate. So you cannot argue Democrats made impeachment a partisan game. However, Impeaching Biden for this tragic series of events would be 100 percent politically motivated and is merely revenge against Democrats and some Republicans for impeaching Trump.
Reason number 2: Bad policy should not be an impeachable offense.
Impeaching a president because of a bad policy decision which results in someone getting killed, sets a bad standard. It means almost any president can be impeached or at least any president can be arguably impeached. This can be used to impeach a president for opposing a mask mandate or for attempting to repeal the affordable care act. One could argue impeachment as an option for increasing taxes which inadvertently causes someone to lost their job and commit suicide. This point is essentially a continuation of my first point about impeachment becoming more partisan but politics is becoming less about ideas and more about cults of personality. The constitution lays down grounds for impeachment in Article II, Section 4, being “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” Republican representative Adam Kinzinger puts it best: "We impeach presidents for high crimes and misdemeanors. This is a very bad decision. Other presidents have made bad decisions. But I'm not going to call on the president to resign for this, nor to be impeached.". I don’t think it’s wise to have a bad sense of policy to be considered a high crime or misdemeanor because then any policy disagreements can become impeachable offences
Reason number 3: Kamala Harris becomes president.
I think most people can agree this would be bad, Kamala Harris becoming president.
Reason number 4: Kamala Harris becoming president risks Donald Trump’s return as President.
Under almost no circumstances can Trump become president again. His economic, social, environmental and foreign policies were in my opinion bad (including starting the pull out of Afghanistan in which his plan was Similar to Bidens), his character destroyed the integrity of the oval office and rhetoric contributed significantly to the division America not seen for generations and for his impeachable offenses that he was unfortunately acquitted for in the Senate. Kamala Harris approval ratings as vice President are quite poor and could very much have to face Donald Trump if they are the respective candidates in 2024. I’m not saying January 6th was worse than what’s happening in Afghanistan but nevertheless, Trump's actions and behavior was an impeachable offense considering his lack of interest in protecting America and her Constitution from any and all threats.
Biden, as flawed as he might be, has shown interest in protecting America to this date, even if he isn’t always successful. Intentions and following the oath of office is what matters, impeachment shouldn’t be used for partisan purposes or bad policy.