Democrats Should Not Be So Confident the Biden Impeachment Inquiry Will Be a Bust

Following the news that Speaker Kevin McCarthy has lent his imprimatur to an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman summed up the conventional wisdom to which Democratic partisans are partial in his reliably theatrical and sophomoric style. Pretending to reel from the news, the senator clutched his head in feigned shock. “It’s devastating,” he scoffed, quaking dramatically. “Please don’t do it.”

Fetterman’s reaction is informed by the politics of past impeachment proceedings. As the editors of National Review concede, the House GOP’s course is a risky one. Impeachments often backfire on the party prosecuting the charges. Republicans do not yet have a smoking gun that would convince the GOP’s impeachment skeptics of the validity of whatever charges an inquiry produces. If Biden were impeached, the Democrat-controlled Senate would almost certainly acquit Biden of the charges. And if the inquiry failed to produce evidence sufficient to prove malfeasance by the president, the logic of the impeachment process might compel Republicans to mount a doomed assault on the Democratic Party’s fixed positions irrespective of the prospects for success.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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Following the news that Speaker Kevin McCarthy has lent his imprimatur to an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, Pennsylvania senator John Fetterman summed up the conventional wisdom to which Democratic partisans are partial in his reliably theatrical and sophomoric style. Pretending to reel from the news, the senator clutched his head in feigned shock. “It’s devastating,” he scoffed, quaking dramatically. “Please don’t do it.”

Fetterman’s reaction is informed by the politics of past impeachment proceedings. As the editors of National Review concede, the House GOP’s course is a risky one. Impeachments often backfire on the party prosecuting the charges. Republicans do not yet have a smoking gun that would convince the GOP’s impeachment skeptics of the validity of whatever charges an inquiry produces. If Biden were impeached, the Democrat-controlled Senate would almost certainly acquit Biden of the charges. And if the inquiry failed to produce evidence sufficient to prove malfeasance by the president, the logic of the impeachment process might compel Republicans to mount a doomed assault on the Democratic Party’s fixed positions irrespective of the prospects for success.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.