”A valid impeachment must be bi-partisan.”
The impeachment of DJT was “partisan” because the President’s extortion of Zelensky to provide a baseless smear on his political opponent was itself a partisan attack. This attack on Biden was a criminal attack on the Democrats’ party, so their impeachment was their only option as a partisan defense.
“The Bidens’ corruption must be exposed.”
Hunter Biden’s presence on the board of a company whose owner’s corruption was well-known is bad; his large compensation made it worse; that he held his seat despite having no particular competence made it yet worse; that he secured his seat only because his father was Vice President at the time makes it yet worse; and his father’s failure to recognize the gross impropriety of his son’s position is an embarrassment if not a manifest ethical wrong. Let us admit all that.
On the other hand, what does the Bidens’ misadventure have to do with present corruption in Ukraine?! The President says that his sole concerns in the call with Zelensky were (1) corruption, (2) disproportionate American aid, and (3) Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. If the Bidens were corrupt rather than just ethically negligent, that would have no bearing on present corruption in Ukraine that might compromise the $391 million in Congressionally-approved American aid.
So, the only value in exposing the Bidens’ ‘corruption’ would be as a smear on Joe Biden, Trump’s presumptive opponent in 2020.
”Even if Trump did what he is accused of, it is not impeachable.”
If withholding Congressionally-approved military aid to an ally at war merely to get leverage in an extortionate ploy to smear a political rival, violating a law (the Impoundment Control Act of 1974) in the process, is not impeachable, then, as has been said many times, nothing is.
”Removing the President from office in an election year would divide the country.”
The country is already divided. Exonerating the President without hearing from material witnesses who obviously have vital testimony despite the wishes of 75% of the electorate is not only divisive but disdainful of the popular will.
”Removing the President for partisan reasons would set a bad precedent.”
See above, the first commonplace. Also, a very bad precedent has already been set: the election of a manifestly unfit man to the Presidency. A man who brags about multiple acts of sexual assault, a man who has uttered over 16,000 documented lies since attaining office, who consistently employs the tactics and techniques of an unprincipled demagogue—all this and much more, is a hideous and unprecedented occasion for our nation.
RES PUBLICA 