Congressional Republicans aren't actively trying to impeach President Joe Biden just yet. But entering August recess this week, it seemed more of them were beginning to come on board.
But as some Republicans are pressuring leadership to move forward with efforts to impeach Biden, Republicans in blue districts that are hesitant about the plan could potentially kill the effort due to Republicans' slim majority in Congress.
Representative Lauren Boebert filed articles of impeachment against Biden in June but failed to convince Republicans to bring it to the House floor for a vote. However, the effort has been gaining steam among Republicans on Capitol Hill, particularly amid growing scrutiny over an alleged role Biden may have played in his son's overseas business dealings while serving as vice president.
Even if successful, an impeachment conviction is likely a non-starter in the Democratically controlled Senate. But there's also a chance an impeachment resolution would be dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, particularly given the current lack of evidence directly implicating Biden of any improprieties during his current administration.
Blame the precarious nature of Republicans' narrow Congressional majority. While some Republicans, particularly party hardliners, have already expressed a willingness to impeach the president, 18 House Republicans currently represent districts Biden carried in 2020, forcing them to adopt moderate political postures within the Republican conference.
Entering a presidential election year in 2024—and the heightened voter turnout that comes with it—impeachment could prove a challenging position to take out of fear of alienating the Biden voters who supported him four years earlier, taking them out with it.
Many of them have already expressed reluctance about impeachment. Others have adopted their conference's rhetoric around impeaching Biden officials, but not Biden himself. Some have remained silent, preferring instead to focus on the issues they ran on that helped them overcome their disadvantage in the polls in a tough 2022 midterm cycle.
Here's where they all stand.
David Schweikert, AZ-01
2022 margin of victory: +0.8 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +1.5 points
A veteran member of Congress, Schweikert previously made headlines after proposing the idea of impeaching FBI Director Chris Wray as well as several other top Biden officials in leaked video footage obtained by a liberal activist. He has so far been mum on the prospect of potential impeachment proceedings against Biden, however. (Newsweek has emailed his office for comment on his position on impeachment, and will update the story if we hear back.)
Juan Ciscomani, AZ-06
2022 margin of victory: +1.4 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +0.1 points
A newcomer to Congress, Ciscomani is a relative moderate and represents one of the nation's most competitive districts. Silent so far on impeachment, Ciscomani was among the seven swing district Republicans who attended former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's retirement speech around the time impeachment talks were first starting to gurgle up.
Newsweek has emailed his office for comment.
John Duarte, CA-13
2022 margin of victory: +0.4 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +10.9 points
A top target for Democrats in 2024, Duarte won his last election by just 564 votes in a district Biden dominated just two years earlier. As such, Duarte has been a vocal critic of Republican-led efforts to impeach Biden dating back to the first resolution in June.
"This motion is not going to pass," he told Axios at the time. "It's probably going to have quite a bit of opposition from both parties."
David Valadao, CA-22
2022 margin of victory: +3.4 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +13 points
Valadao was one of the small minority of Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump and was not voted out of office or forced into retirement. Even more unusual was the fact the district he represents went by a double-digit margin for Biden.
And while occasionally critical of the president, he has so far said nothing about his colleagues' efforts to impeach the president. Newsweek has emailed his office for comment.
Mike Garcia, CA-27
2022 margin of victory: +6.4 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +12.4 points
Another California moderate, Garcia won his seat by just 333 seats in 2020 before his healthy victory in 2022. While he told NBC News earlier this year he was open to the prospect of impeachment, he claimed it should proceed "through the auspices of due process" and that he would evaluate the evidence as it's presented to him.
"We'll see where the articles go. We'll see where the evidence points," Garcia said.
Young Kim, CA-40
2022 margin of victory: +13.6 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +1.9 points
Kim voted to certify Biden's election in 2021 amid pressure from some Republicans to reject election results in closely contested states like Arizona and Pennsylvania. But she also opposed Trump's impeachment after the Jan. 6 riots on the U.S. Capitol, saying it would create fissures for the country. So far, she has yet to weigh in on Biden's impeachment.
Newsweek has emailed Kim's office for comment.
However, I believe impeaching the president now will fail to hold him accountable or allow us to move forward once President-elect Biden is sworn in. This process will only create more fissures in our country as we emerge from some of our darkest days. https://t.co/NK1EdO5xoN pic.twitter.com/IJIlb6oGva
— Young Kim (@RepYoungKim) January 13, 2021
Michelle Steel, CA-45
2022 margin of victory: +4.8 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +6.1 points
Steel was absent for the certification vote in 2021, and did not comment on how she would have voted. She also voted against impeaching Trump but has not commented on whether she would support impeaching Biden.
Newsweek has emailed Steel's office for comment.
Don Bacon, NE-2
2022 margin of victory: +3.0 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +6.4 points
Bacon has been a living wet blanket for Republican efforts to impeach the president, saying that even the existing evidence is insufficient to consider formal actions against the commander-in-chief.
"It's too early for a formal impeachment inquiry," he told NBC News. "We should have more confidence that actual high crimes and misdemeanors occurred before starting a formal impeachment inquiry."
Tom Kean, NJ-7
2022 margin of victory: +3.2 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +3.8 points
A New Jersey moderate and congressional veteran in a fair weather district, Kean is a newcomer to Congress after a long career in the New Jersey Assembly.
While it's unclear where he stands on impeachment, his father—former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean—called for Trump to be censured instead of impeached, and later described the events of Jan. 6 "a wound to democracy itself" in a letter advocating for a bipartisan inquiry into Jan. 6.
Newsweek has emailed Kean's office for comment.
Nick LaLota, NY-01
2022 margin of victory: +11.8 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +0.2 points
One of several moderate Republican freshmen elected to Congress under New York's GOP-friendly district lines in 2022, LaLota has been reluctant to embrace Republicans' impeachment fervor.
"I don't think that impeachment is something that should be taken lightly," he told Axios in June.
George Santos, NY-03
2022 margin of victory: +8.2 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +8.2 points
Already considered among the most vulnerable members of Congress due to a litany of scandals ranging from potential campaign finance violations to lying about his personal and professional background on the campaign trail, Santos is already a man with little to lose.
Should House Speaker Kevin McCarthy move forward with articles of impeachment, Santos said, he'd likely be willing to support it.
"I have full trust in Speaker McCarthy's ability to assess the evidence, and if it comes down to an impeachment inquiry, I will be supportive of the measure and then see what comes of the trial," he said in a statement to Spectrum News 1 earlier this summer.
Anthony D'Esposito, NY-04
2022 margin of victory: +3.6 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +14.6 points
Representing the bluest of Republican-held districts in Congress, D'Esposito has not ruled out the possibility of supporting a legitimate impeachment inquiry. But, he told Spectrum News, impeachment was the last thing he was elected to worry about, saying his constituents were more interested in his campaign pledges to address inflation, the economy and crime.
"That's what I'm going to focus on now. Until I get presented with something different, that's my focus," he told the outlet.
As for a pathway to impeachment under the current evidence? "I don't see it."
Mike Lawler, NY-17
2022 margin of victory: +0.6 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +10.1 points
After scoring a wild upset against former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney last fall, Lawler has taken a moderate posture toward impeachment and publicly denounced his party's efforts to impeach Biden in a gaggle with reporters back in June after relegating the articles of impeachment to an investigative stage.
"Impeachment should not be political by any stretch," he told reporters after the June vote. "We've seen what happens when Congress acts in a political matter—it does not serve the interests of the American people in any way."
"So the question to me right now is do the investigations—are they producing enough facts and evidence that warrant taking it to the next step?" he added. "I don't think it's there at the moment, but these committees are doing their job."
Marc Molinaro, NY-19
2022 margin of victory: +2.2 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +4.6 points
Molinaro has not weighed in on impeachment. However, he told NBC News that he believed the White House should be more forthcoming with the information Republicans are seeking that has fueled the impeachment talk.
"It's an open question," he told NBC News. "I think at this point the committees are proceeding, and the administration would be wise to respond to those questions."
Brandon Williams, NY-22
2022 margin of victory: +1.6 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +7.4 points
Williams has said nothing about impeachment and very little about the investigations. He also apparently deleted a tweet raising questions about Biden's attendance at a dinner with his son and several of his business partners, according to a Google search by a Newsweek reporter, and has not posted about Hunter Biden on his social media since.
Newsweek has reached out to his office via email for comment.
Lori Chavez-DeRemer, OR-5
2022 margin of victory: +2.2 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +8.8 points
Chavez-DeRemer has deferred to the committee investigations into the Bidens' activities after voting for the leadership investigation to send the issue to committee.
"There should be an investigation, I think that's what the committees are doing," she has said previously. "We're focused on that."
Brian Fitzpatrick, PA-01
2022 margin of victory: +10.0 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +4.6 points
The co-chair of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus, Fitzpatrick told NBC News he was uncomfortable with the prospect of a partisan impeachment process—no matter which party was leading it.
"We've got to get back to a point where impeachment is what it was intended to be," he said. "I feel like, you know, both in the last cycle and in this cycle, we're converting into essentially a vote of no confidence in the British Parliament. And I don't want to see our country go down that path."
Jen Kiggans, VA-02
2022 margin of victory: +3.4 points
Biden's 2020 margin of victory: +1.9 points
Kiggans joined the rest of her House Republican colleagues in voting in favor of referring two articles of impeachment against President Biden to GOP-led House committees for further probing back in June. However, she's had little to say about it.
Newsweek has reached out to her office via email for more detail.
Others?
While Biden district Republicans will likely be the closest-watched in a potential impeachment vote, even non-vulnerable Republicans, like Florida Representative Carlos Gimenez, told outlets they were reluctant to support what they consider a "premature" impeachment, saying, "I may vote to impeach the president, but we need to go through a process."
Still, there's likely to be some public pressure involved. According to a poll of 2,000 voters released by the Republican-leaning firm Cygnal on Thursday, some 50 percent of the country is now supportive of an effort to at least investigate whether the president was implicated in an impeachable offense.
"There's just a growing distrust in government," Cygnal pollster Chris Lane told Newsweek. "The impeachment probe is about trust, the cocaine [that was recently discovered in the White House] issue is about trust, and to even take it a step further, the UFO issue is about trust. There's just no trust in what the government is telling us."
