This week, House Republicans voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry, expanding the investigative powers of Congress, and giving more legal weight to subpoenas. It was a strict party-line vote, but, according to one U.S. Senator, if Joe Biden is impeached by the House, a small number of Democrats have expressed being open to convicting him.
"When you talk to some more moderate-leaning senators they will tell you that if the House sends us over an air-tight case that completely, easily points to the president breaking law in treason, misdemeanor, high crime, that they would try it just like they would any other case and go into it without a bipartisan look, but as a criminal look," Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said NewsmaxTV’s Wake Up America Friday.
"Have any Democratic senators mentioned to you, off the record, again, that they would look at this fairly and objectively? I'm talking about a yes vote on impeaching the president if it gets there,” asked host Rob Finnerty.
"They said if it was a convictable offense, they would definitely be looking to convict,” he replied. "I've had that conversation with five — I will not name them because I don't wanna put them in a position — but five separate senators, all five of them have said the exact same thing. These are senators that I have somewhat of a relationship with, but we usually vote opposite on most things.”
Related: Here's the Case for Joe Biden's Impeachment
Getting anyone to vote against their party in an impeachment proceeding is no easy feat. As Newsweek noted, "At the end of the Senate trial after his first impeachment, which began in December 2019, Trump was acquitted by a 52-48 vote on an abuse of power charge and a 53-47 vote on an obstruction of Congress charge. Of the 53 Republicans who voted, only one, Mitt Romney of Utah, found Trump guilty on the charge of abuse of power."
Seven Republicans ultimately voted to convict Trump in the second impeachment.
But who are the Democrats who would be open to convicting Biden?
Even though Mullin wouldn’t name them, we can deduce some of potential candidates.
Mullin referred to them as moderate-leaning, but that’s a rather subjective term.
Even the most “moderate” of Senate Democrats would hardly count as moderate. All but eight Democrat U.S. Senators score a 0% on Heritage Action’s conservative scorecard. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) score 14%, but they’d never vote to convict. Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) also scores 14%, and seeing as how he represents the red state of Georgia, I could see him possibly claiming to be open to convicting Joe Biden.
Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is another one in the 14% club, but I wouldn’t bank on him either.
The remaining Democrats are Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) with a 20% conservative rating, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) with 28%, and Sen. Joe Manchin comes in the highest with 33%.
Joe Manchin is an obvious candidate; since he’s not running for re-election, he can easily vote his conscience on this one. Tester is up for re-election in 2024, and his victories have been by rather narrow margins, and he may have suggested openness to conviction.
Even though Sen. John Fetterman has been bucking his party on some hot-button issues, Joe Biden campaigned for him in 2022, and I can’t see him voting to convict Biden, regardless of how solid the case is.
What about some red state Democrats? I can mention Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) as a possibility because he’s up for reelection in 2024, but I don’t see Brown voting to convict Biden under any circumstances.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema is certainly a possibility, but I would say that’s unlikely. She’s already likely damaged her political career by going against Joe Biden on a few select issues, and voting to convict Biden won’t do her any favors with the Democratic base next year, assuming she does run for reelection.
There are other Democrats representing red states or even battleground states that I just can’t see voting to convict Biden under any circumstances.
Of course, even if five Democratic senators say they’d be open to voting to convict Joe Biden, that doesn’t mean they actually would. As I’ve said before,. Democrats are notorious for fancying themselves more centrist and objective than they really are.
Did five Democratic U.S. senators say they’d be open to convicting Biden? Maybe. Would they actually do it? I think that’s doubtful.
