The "Palace Battle Drama" has been released again, and the two parties in the United States take turns impeaching each other

▲ US House Speaker McCarthy

The "palace drama" of American politics has been renewed. Several American media outlets, including CNN, reported on September 14th that US President Biden had stated at a campaign rally in Virginia the day before that House Speaker McCarthy announced the launch of an impeachment investigation against him "because they wanted to shut down the government.". Within three and a half years, the two presidents faced three impeachment investigations, once again indicating that American party politics and American style democracy are falling into the "worst extreme politics".

Involved in the congressional budget dispute

Biden said he is "not very clear about the reasons why the Republicans are doing this, but it seems like they are just trying to impeach me." "From the information I currently have, the best reason I can think of is that they want the government to shut down.". The Guardian of the UK reported that some Republicans will launch impeachment investigations as a political bargaining chip in party negotiations to support the temporary funding bill and avoid the government shutting down on October 1st. The New York Times reported that McCarthy unilaterally announced the launch of an impeachment investigation without a formal vote in the House of Representatives, intertwining the Republican investigation into Biden with the budget dispute currently plaguing Congress. "This seems to be to quell the 'rebellion' brewing by extreme conservative critics within the Republican Party.".

This is Biden's first public opinion after McCarthy announced the relevant news. However, in the past few months, he has repeatedly hinted at the possibility of being impeached by Republicans and hinted that this is a Republican attempt to distract people's attention from economic improvement. He said earlier at an event at a manufacturing factory in Maine, "The inflation rate is currently declining, and Republicans may have to find other reasons to criticize me. Perhaps they will decide to impeach me."

On September 13th, during an event at the White House focused on cancer treatment, Biden did not answer any related questions. CNN quoted unnamed sources as saying that the White House's intention in doing so was to "ensure that they can legally answer all questions from a communication perspective," while keeping Biden and Vice President Harris outside the debate and focused on managing and communicating the domestic agenda.

Conservatives are increasing pressure

American media generally believe that the main reason why McCarthy hastily announced the launch of the impeachment investigation on the 12th was due to the enormous pressure from hardliners within the party. On the evening of the 11th, Florida Congressman and Republican Matt Gates, who often criticizes McCarthy, said he will give a speech in the House of Representatives to attack McCarthy and provide reasons for the Republican Party to initiate the process of dismissing McCarthy as Speaker. The New York Times reported that Gates' statement made McCarthy realize that he could be in a very dangerous situation. On the one hand, he needs to do his best to appease the conservatives within the party, and on the other hand, he needs to reach a settlement with the Democratic controlled Senate and White House on spending issues to avoid a highly politically risky government shutdown.

ABC stated that in McCarthy's calculations, this could mean a win-win situation for him. However, reality may not be as he intended: Gates reiterated his threat to change party leadership on the 12th, stating that McCarthy violated his promise to right-wing members of the party to win the position of Speaker. At the same time, although he wanted to use the impeachment investigation to exchange for a compromise from the conservative faction within the party, it seemed to have had little effect, and the House of Representatives still failed to pass the defense spending bill for the new fiscal year on the 13th.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons said in an interview with the BBC that McCarthy has been "taken hostage by the most extreme elements in the Republican Party.". California Congressman and Democrat Adam Schiff, who led the first impeachment of Trump, told Public Broadcasting Corporation that McCarthy's unilateral announcement of launching an impeachment investigation was equivalent to "acknowledging his lack of support in the Republican caucus in Congress to push the agenda forward.". A senior Republican congressman and White House official who declined to be named said in an interview with the Financial Times, "Speaker McCarthy had to do this to save his job."

Political polarization is intensifying again

McCarthy stated that the investigation was initiated because the Biden family has a "culture of corruption", which may involve abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and corruption. However, currently, the vast majority of judicial and political investigations are not targeting Biden himself, but his son Hunter Biden. However, the problem is that the Republican Party has not produced much "solid hammer" to get Biden involved. Frank Bauman, an emeritus professor and impeachment expert at the University of Missouri Law School, stated that "in every impeachment case in the past, a large amount of evidence of the President's misconduct had already emerged before any action was taken by the House of Representatives," but this time the Republican Party had nothing, it was zero.

The Financial Times reported that in the eyes of Democrats and most moderate Republicans, the reason for the Republican hardliners to launch an impeachment investigation against Biden may be the weakest in history against the current president, but this does not prevent Republicans from using impeachment as a weapon to attack Biden and the Democratic Party, and thus influence the 2024 presidential election. Julian Zellizer, a political history professor at Princeton University, said that for Biden, impeachment itself "could harm him, and that's the key.". White House spokesperson Ian Sams criticized Republican impeachment investigations as "the worst extreme politics".

This is likely to create another "miracle" in American political history: a former Republican president who has been impeached twice and now criminally charged four times, and a current president impeached by the House of Representatives will compete for the White House "throne" in 2024. Impeachment was originally the "last constitutional remedy" in the "separation of powers" system in the United States, but now it has become a political tool for both parties to smear and retaliate against each other, and the threshold for impeachment of the president is getting lower and lower. The Washington Post helplessly wrote, "In the United States, although a common ground is becoming increasingly difficult to find, many Americans have a surprisingly unanimous view on one issue: the political system has collapsed."

【 Original Title 】 Overseas Network: Once Upon a Time: The Two Parties in the United States Take turns to impeach, and "Palace Battle Drama" Comes Again

Source | Overseas Network