Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin from Oklahoma is cautioning his House Republican colleagues against pursuing the impeachment and removal of President Biden based on actions or offenses predating his 2020 election. In an interview with Newsmax, Mullin’s remarks cast doubt on the House GOP’s investigation into the business dealings of Biden’s family, particularly Hunter Biden’s associations with foreign companies during Biden’s tenure as vice president and immediately afterward.
Mullin emphasized the necessity for any grounds of impeachment, characterized as “high crimes or misdemeanors,” to have occurred while Biden held his current office. He specified that actions undertaken during Biden’s vice presidency or the transitional period between offices might not qualify as impeachable offenses. The Senator urged caution in pursuing cases, advising that they meet the threshold for conviction, acknowledging the high bar set for such proceedings.
This stance echoes the approach taken by numerous Senate Republicans, including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted to acquit former President Trump on the basis that he was no longer in office during the Senate trial in February 2021.
Mullin’s statement came two days after the House, in a partisan vote of 221-212, approved a resolution initiating a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden’s alleged improper benefits from Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. Hunter Biden, in a press conference outside the Capitol, vehemently asserted his father’s lack of financial involvement in his business ventures, spanning legal practice, board membership in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, and collaboration with a Chinese entrepreneur.
House GOP investigators, focusing on what they term “the Biden’s influence peddling,” are examining events from 2014 to 2017, covering Joe Biden’s vice presidency and the immediate aftermath. Other Republican senators, such as Senate Republican Whip John Thune and Senator John Cornyn, have cautioned that convicting Biden in a Democratic-controlled Senate faces significant challenges, requiring 67 votes, with at least 18 Democrats needed for conviction.