It’s hard to believe but…
Wait. Stop. I need to rephrase that.
When describing the latest absurdities emanating from the House GOP, it’s no longer appropriate to say “hard to believe.” As with their orange leader, the absurd has become commonplace. It’s business as usual.
That’s why it shouldn’t surprise anyone that every single Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives…no exceptions…voted last week to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Of course they did. They did this despite the fact that, even as many Republicans admit (see statements by Joyce and Grassley, for examples), they have not produced a single shred of evidence to support an impeachment. I’d call it a fishing expedition, except that it would be an insult to fishermen.
Why did they pull this stunt? Two reasons: Revenge and Re-election (of Trump). Or as an article in the Sacramento Bee put it: “It’s an evidence-free act of political retaliation that should be booked as a campaign contribution to Trump.” The idea is to (1) get revenge on Democrats who voted for Trump’s first impeachment (which they still view as politically motivated) and, more importantly, (2) facilitate Trump’s re-election by deceiving voters into drawing a phony moral equivalence between Trump and Biden. To quote The New Republic: “They have to confuse the country’s swing voters into not being sure which candidate is the more corrupt. They have to get low-information voters to think, ‘Well, you know, they both seem pretty skuzzy to me.’”
Some GOP House members want to lull to sleep, falsely assuaging your fears. They say they will “follow the facts.” They claim that there’s a big difference between formalizing an impeachment inquiry and actually voting to impeach. One doesn’t necessarily lead to the other. True enough in principle. But remember: GOP House members have no principles. If they had, they never would have started an inquiry in the first place — in the absence of any such facts.
That’s why it’s almost certain that some form of fabricated “alternative facts” will emerge that allows the House to vote to impeach — just as it led to the ludicrous vote last week. The New Republic considers it a certainty: “The 118th Congress will impeach Joe Biden, a completely blameless Joe Biden.”
But there remains a glimmer of hope that we can stave off this impeachment charade. For one thing, it’s certain that the Senate will never vote to convict Biden. You can expect even some Senate Republicans to vote against it. That’s a relief. Unfortunately, it won’t totally counteract the negative political fall-out of a House impeachment. But there is hope here as well — hope that the House impeachment is not quite as certain as the doomsayers predict. It lies with the 17 House Republicans who reside in districts that Biden won in 2020.
Democrats only need to win back a handful of these seats to win the majority in 2024. And these Biden-district Republicans will be especially vulnerable to lose their seats — if they vote to impeach Biden. As an article in Politico put it: “House Republicans in swing districts are trapped between the wishes of their GOP base to move forward on an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden and the risk of being portrayed as extremists as they defend their seats in the 2024 midterm elections.” You can be sure Democrats will use this issue as fodder in campaign ads next year. Perhaps that prospect will be enough to restrain at least a few Republicans — enough to prevent impeachment.
And that, my friends, brings us to take a closer look at who exactly these vulnerable Republicans are. It turns out that three of them are in California districts. One district in particular is of special interest to us here at IEB. It is California’s 13th District — represented by John Duarte — a district that we have chosen to be a focus of our effort to swing the House back to Blue.
You may recall that Duarte defeated Democrat Adam Gray in 2022 by just a few hundred votes, in what was one of the closest House races in the nation that year. We have a chance to undo that result next November. As a bonus, our efforts may also lead to the ultimate failure of the Biden impeachment effort.
What can you do to help right now? You can join us as we travel to California’s 13th district — where we will be canvassing Democratic voters…“telling them about the stakes in the upcoming election, and asking them if they’ll commit to remind three friends to vote.” Our next canvassing trip will be on January 7th. Sign up here to join us. The stakes could not be higher!
For even more actions you can take, check out this Indivisible National page.
