Marjorie Taylor Greene Behind More Than Half of Attempts to Impeach Biden

House Republicans have filed nine impeachment articles against President Joe Biden, five of which were sponsored by the same congressperson: Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.

According to a recent report by Axios listing a total of 14 impeachment attempts launched by the Republican Party, two more impeachment resolutions were filed by House Republicans against Attorney General Merrick Garland, while Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas were the targets of one impeachment article each.

Last week, Greene introduced a new article of impeachment against Biden "for endangering, compromising, and undermining the energy security of the United States by selling oil from the United States' Strategic Petroleum Reserve to foreign nations," a practice that the Trump administration also engaged with.

Previous impeachment resolutions launched by the Georgia representative included accusations against Biden of "usurping Congress's legislative authority" by empowering the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to extend the moratorium on residential evictions during the pandemic, leaving behind "thousands of American civilians and Afghan allies" during the hasty withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan last year, abusing power and "endangering the security" of the country.

This latter accusation was made in an impeachment resolution introduced on August 23, 2021, which said Biden endangered U.S. citizens with his border policies.

On January 21, 2021, Greene introduced an impeachment article saying Biden abused the power of his office by allowing his son, Hunter Biden, "to influence the domestic policy of a foreign nation and accept benefits from foreign nationals in exchange for favors."

Newsweek reached out to Greene for comment.

The four other impeachment articles filed against Biden were introduced by Republican Representatives Bill Posey of Florida, Bob Gibbs of Ohio, Randy Weber of Texas and Lauren Boebert of Colorado for "high crimes and misdemeanors of betrayal of public trust."

Why Is the GOP Calling to Impeach Biden?

"Calls for impeaching Biden are nothing new among the House 'Freedom Caucus,'" Dr. Thomas Gift, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at UCL in London, told Newsweek.

"For Republicans from far-right districts, the prospect plays wells on the campaign trail," he added. "But it's hard to imagine GOP leadership actually supporting such a move in practice, even if their party regains control of the House after the midterms."

The main reason for this likely lack of support, according to Gift, is that "it's not good politics."

"Advocates of impeaching Biden can't even coalesce around exactly what they'd want to impeach Biden for," Gift said. "Going down that road would also open up Republicans to accusations of overreach and playing politics when they should be focusing on kitchen-table issues like inflation."

Jonathan Parker, a senior lecturer at the School of Social, Political and Global Studies at Keele University, thinks it's "absolutely" a matter of revenge for Republicans to impeach a Democratic president after Donald Trump's own impeachment.

But Professor Todd Landman, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham, told Newsweek that that he does not see the issue "as revenge per se, but one in which the Republicans see a potential double standard and would thus want, as is their right, to find accountability for these issues."

He also sees the calls for impeaching Biden as part of a trend of increased impeachment resolutions in U.S. politics.

"Although calls for impeaching Biden will doubtlessly be seen as payback for Trump's two impeachment proceedings, they're more generally reflective of impeachment increasingly being viewed as a common threat of opposition parties," Landman said.

"Other recent presidents, including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, also endured a chorus of calls for impeachment. But cooler heads ultimately prevailed. Although Washington's partisan climate is more fraught than ever, any effort to impeach Biden is likely to be dead on arrival, if for no other reason than it would backfire against its initiators," he added.

Could Biden Actually Be Impeached?

"Any president can be impeached at any time during his or her time in office," Landman said. "The formal process is to file resolutions that contain enough evidence to bring to a vote."

He explained: "The decision to impeach requires the House of Representatives under the auspices of the U.S. Constitution for 'Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.' These remain ill-defined grounds, and in the case of Bill Clinton were lodged on the basis that he lied about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

"In the case of Richard Nixon, the impeachment charge was for the Watergate break-in and cover-up, but Nixon resigned before impeachment. In the case of Trump, the two impeachments were for the Ukraine military aid issue and then the January 6 events," he said.

"Both impeachments of Trump were successful but the trials in the Senate were not, so Trump was not removed from office as the result of impeachment. In the Biden case, the main issues are the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan and the Mexico border issues, which involve not only Biden but also some of his administration."

Landman thinks that, realistically, Biden's impeachment will depend on several factors: the veracity, evidence and logic of the resolutions; the timing of the impeachment process; the current composition of the House (where now the GOP has a low probability of success for its impeachment resolutions); and the future composition of the House after the November midterm elections.

"If the House is controlled by the Republicans after the midterms, then the probability of success increases," Landman said. "If Biden and any others in his administration were to be impeached, then the Senate would hold a trial. The composition of the Senate would then also be an important determining factor."

Recent polls by FiveThirtyEight show Democrats as "slightly favored" to win the Senate, while Republicans are "slightly favored" to win the House.

Whatever the result of the midterms, Parker thinks that "there is no chance at all" of the GOP's attempts at removing Biden succeeding.

"It takes 67 senators to convict," he said. "Even Donald Trump, when clearly committing acts that might lead to impeachment (extorting foreign governments to dig up dirt on opponents and encouraging the overturning of an election), didn't come close to being convicted. Even if the Senate goes Republican (a 50/50 toss-up right now), it wouldn't be enough.

"More to the point, Biden hasn't done anything that remotely warrants impeachment. This effort is the Trump-aligned radicals of the party pushing for a symbolic gesture. Many Democrats did this from time to time during the Trump presidency, but the party as a whole refused to go for it until Trump committed really obvious violations that even his own supporters condemned," Parker said.

"I suspect the Republican party leaders would prefer to avoid impeachment. It would be politically risky and look vindictive and petty. It would also fail and might, as happened with Bill Clinton, increase the popularity of the president.

"The much safer, more likely option is for the Republicans to take back the House and then open inquiry after inquiry into the Biden administration. They can investigate whatever they like, call whatever hostile witnesses they want, and generate good headlines. That would keep the Biden team busy fighting these efforts without doing anything overtly nasty.

"However, the right has a track record of taking risky options. There are many Trump-endorsed candidates running, and their electoral success will have a big impact on this effort," Parker said.