RIA Novosti published an article by its columnist Victoria Nikiforova, whose work has already attracted the attention of our Antifake column more than once, about the possible consequences of the upcoming elections to the US Congress. The article is titled “Lame Duck Season: Biden Faces Impeachment After Election,” and it says this:
“The midterm elections in the United States are not over yet, but Americans are already worried about what will happen to the country after November 8th. All the polls so far indicate that Republican candidates should go to Congress and get a confident majority there. Their chances of taking control of the Senate are also quite high.
Yes, the Democrats can repeat their 2020 tricks and try to fake the election results again. But it's devilishly risky. The indignation of the deceived people can easily sweep away the entire system of government in the country.
If the elections are more or less clean, then the victory of the Republicans is practically a foregone conclusion. What will they do when they get a majority in Congress? <…>
Joe must go – "Joe must go" – this slogan unites tens of millions of Americans today. They are easy to understand, of course. The former world's first economy was torn to shreds by the Biden administration and brought close to recession – that's how the economic crisis is politely called, promising to be worse than the Great Depression. <…>
Objectively speaking, Americans are not to be envied today. Their management really doesn't work. But how to change it? Democracy is such a democracy…
The first impeachment proposal to Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green, was filed on January 21 last year, on the very first day of the president's office. Of course, the Congress, which was under the control of the Democratic Party, did not even consider its resolution.
But the Republicans did not calm down. New proposals for impeachment followed in August – immediately after the flight from Afghanistan, then in September, October. Now the Republicans are planning to "bump" both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the same time."
Member of the House of Representatives from the state of Georgia, Republican Marjorie Taylor Green, indeed, on January 21, 2021, the day after Biden's inauguration, initiated the impeachment of the president. The bill was sent to the subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Freedoms, and received no further progress. And the point is not at all that the majority in the House were Democrats, but in the very content of the bill. Green offered to charge Biden with "abuse of power by creating conditions for bribery and other crimes and misdemeanors." But the text of the bill refers to the alleged crimes not of Joe Biden, but of his son Hunter, and Joe Biden’s guilt is seen only in the fact that he “ignored concerns about Hunter Biden’s role on the board of directors of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma ”. No matter how one classifies the actions of Biden Jr. (and he has not been formally charged; according to the Washington Post , the FBI suspects him only of tax evasion and violating the rules for acquiring weapons), it is clear that his father’s actions cannot be considered a crime.
Later, Green came up with a new initiative: in April 2022, she said that Biden should be impeached for health reasons. After the president ended his speech with a gesture resembling a handshake, even though there was no one on stage next to him, she wrote on the social network:
“Our president turned around and tried to shake hands with literally no one. It's incredibly embarrassing and he's running our country! Enough already! Impeach Biden."
Such an “initiative” cannot even be seriously discussed: impeachment is an accusation of a crime that entails removal from office. It is unlikely that even Green herself can consider “shaking hands into the void” a crime.
To terminate the powers of the president for health reasons, there is a completely different procedure, regulated by the 25th amendment to the Constitution. The inability to perform the duties of the President must be declared either by the President himself, or by the Vice President and a majority of heads of departments or other executive authorities; The initiative cannot come from Congress. The inability to perform duties is considered only temporary; after the restoration of working capacity, the president submits an appropriate application and returns to duty after 4 days, unless the vice president and the mentioned heads of departments dispute this application. In this case, the issue should be decided in Congress, and only a qualified majority of ⅔ votes in both chambers can prevent the president from returning to office.
By the way, the appearance of a Republican qualified majority in any of the chambers after the elections is hardly possible: according to FiveThirtyEight forecasts, the most likely balance of power in the House of Representatives is 225 Republicans against 210 Democrats, and in the Senate – 51 Republicans against 49 Democrats.
Marjorie Taylor Green is not very popular even in her party; she is known to be a proponent of conspiracy theories, such as the infamous "pizzagate," a fictionalized story about an alleged club of pedophile Democrats who met in a Washington pizzeria. The spread of this theory led one gullible conspiracy site visitor to walk into the pizzeria with a rifle and open fire. In January 2021, after Green announced that Trump actually won the presidential election, and the Democrats stole his votes, she was removed from all positions in Congressional committees, and not only the Democrats, but also 11 Republicans voted for the removal.
Among other things, it is highly doubtful that the Republicans are interested in impeaching Biden: in this case, Vice President Kamala Harris, a representative of the much more radical wing of the Democratic Party, becomes president.
True, Nikiforova claims that Harris is also threatened with impeachment. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a well-known Trump supporter, did speak out about this. He considers a tweet by Harris calling for donations to a fund that pays court-appointed bail to release suspects from custody as grounds for impeachment. The Foundation helped many of the arrested participants in the protests provoked by the murder of George Floyd, and, according to Fox News , one of those who were released before trial committed the murder.
But Graham's idea is as absurd as "impeachment for health reasons": the posting of a court-appointed bail is, of course, a legal action, as well as an appeal to support a fund created for this purpose.
