Shortly after House Republicans unanimously authorized an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, a storied wire service blared an eye-popping headline: “Biden impeachment inquiry authorized by House Republicans despite lack of evidence,” Reuters told voters. Across the political gulf that divides America and its media, Newsmax quoted a prominent Democrat insisting that the “impeachment inquiry stains Biden.”
Amid such starkly different narratives about the 46th president and his son Hunter’s entangled foreign dealings, it’s easy for the facts to fall to the wayside or to forget that the inquiry is not an impeachment: just a legal effort to compel evidence that will help lawmakers eventually judge whether articles of impeachment are merited.
Along that contentious journey – and Democrats from the White House to Capitol Hill have made clear they intend to make it contentious – there will be significant questions of law and history that must be resolved.
For instance, much of the behavior under scrutiny occurred when Joe Biden was vice president, or when he left office. Can a chief executive be impeached for misconduct, if proven, that occurred before he was elected president?
