Much of the discussion over whether President Joe Biden will drop out of the 2024 presidential race centers on his increasingly obvious age-related issues. But a potentially more serious problem awaits Biden, the latest I&I/TIPP Poll suggests: Strong evidence that he illegally profited from public office while vice president under former President Barack Obama.
At 81 years of age and with painful difficulties handling his official duties, Biden's waning mental acuity has become a serious issue. But while age and a record low approval rating are major impediments to Biden's reelection, the pile of evidence amassed in Congress' investigation into Biden's and son Hunter's legally questionable business dealings could prove lethal to his presidency.
I&I/TIPP posed the following question to U.S. voters in August of 2023: "A congressional committee claims it has strong evidence that President Biden and his family took millions of dollars in bribes from foreign nations. If those claims turn out to be true, President Biden should:"
Voters were given a choice of possible answers: "Resign immediately," "Be impeached and removed from office," "Be allowed to finish his term in office, but not run again," "Run again in 2024, regardless of the findings," and "Not sure."
A strong majority of 67% in our poll suggested that President Joe Biden should either be impeached (43%) or resign immediately (24%) if the charges prove true. Just 15% said Biden should “Be allowed to finish his term in office, but not run again,” and another 8% said “Run again in 2024, regardless of the findings.” One in six (17%) weren’t sure.
The most recent I&I/TIPP national online poll was taken from Jan. 3-5 included 1,401 adults, with a +/-2.6 percentage-point margin of error.
Have things changed since mid-summer? Not much.
As of January 2024, 62% say Biden should either resign (25%) or be impeached (37%) for his misdeeds, with a plurality of Democrats (42%) and strong majorities of Republicans (84%) and independents (62%) agreeing.
It should be noted that of the 36 demographic groups we routinely track each month, apart from Democrats (44%), in January only African-American voters (41%) and self-described liberals (46%) were below 50% on the "resign/impeach" questions.
Of the remaining 38% of the responses, which include only the least-punitive responses, 17% said Biden should be allowed to finish his term, but not run again, while just 10% said he should be able to run, regardless of what Congress finds. Another 11% said they were "not sure."
I&I/TIPP asked one more question: “Do you support or oppose the House of Representatives launching an impeachment inquiry against President Biden.”
A clear majority, 54%, said they either supported such a move “strongly” (36%) or “somewhat” (18%), while 33% opposed it either strongly (20%) or somewhat (13%). Another 13% said they were “not sure.”
These questions aren't moot. While the bad news about Biden's possible misconduct subsided during the holiday season, it's come roaring back in the New Year. And, if anything, the growing evidence of possible Biden family corruption has only grown in the past half year.
House Republicans threatened a contempt of Congress charge against Hunter Biden for refusing to testify. But Biden let it be known through his lawyer on Jan. 12 that he would testify behind closed doors if a new subpoena were issued, asserting that the earlier subpoena for him to appear before lawmakers was "legally invalid."
The revival of attention to the troubling evidence of at least $21 million paid to Biden family members by foreign governments and government-allied businesses is likely to further damage Biden's "middle-class Joe" persona in the upcoming election.
Right now, the Biden administration's position seems to be "ignore it, and maybe it will go away."
"Of the 337 scandal-related questions that White House reporters asked, (Karine) Jean-Pierre provided a definitive answer to just eight of them (2.37%)," senior research analyst and Media Editor Bill D'Agostino of the conservative-leaning Media Research Center asserted in a recent study. "This figure tracks very closely with our findings from the first half of 2023, in which the press secretary answered only six out of 252 questions (2.38%)."
Fox News, in reporting on the MRC study, noted:
Despite campaigning on restoring norms in the White House following the Trump years, Biden has granted little access to the press since he took office. Biden held fewer press conferences than every president in recent memory. He granted even fewer interviews.
Republican leaders in Congress launched their own investigation of Biden's possible corruption while in office, specifically while serving as Obama's No. 2.
Last September, in a devastating report, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., argued that "overwhelming evidence" of Biden's corruption means he should be impeached.
"Evidence reveals that then-Vice President Joe Biden spoke, dined, and developed relationships with his family’s foreign business targets," according to a Comer press release dated Sept. 23 of last year. "These business targets include foreign oligarchs who sent millions of dollars to his family. It also includes a Chinese national who wired a quarter of a million dollars to his son."
Moreover, after denying his family made money in China, the "House Oversight Committee uncovered bank wires revealing how the Bidens received millions from Chinese companies with significant ties to the Chinese intelligence and the Chinese Communist Party."
As Politico noted in a November "special report," despite repeated denials by Joe Biden and those who represent him, "in recent months, as congressional Republicans have opened an impeachment inquiry and controversies related to Hunter Biden continue to be litigated in the courts and in the public square, a steady trickle of revelations have contradicted the president’s denials."
If found to have been engaged in influence peddling with foreign powers, Biden could be in deep trouble. It's not just an impeachable offense, it's a felony.
"If the president knew his family was engaged in 'influence peddling,' the president by definition is corrupt. The current defense doesn't have the legs to carry the president out of the scandal," Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told Newsweek in late December. "Factually, it's becoming more difficult to see how the president wasn't aware of the influence peddling."
Or, as a piece in the online journal 1945 concluded in its headline, "The Joe Biden Corruption Disaster Finally Exploded."
As more information tumbles out of the ongoing investigation, it seems highly likely that Biden and his family will face some kind of serious legal reckoning — whether through impeachment (will Republicans in Congress drop impeachment and just let Biden self-destruct on his own?), or actual corruption charges leading to a public trial.
Either way, as I&I/TIPP Poll data show, American voters haven't forgotten. And if Biden and his family face legal consequences for what many legal analysts agree is corrupt behavior, losing the 2024 election might be the least of Joe Biden's problems.
I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past five presidential elections.
Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.
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