“Impeachable conduct.”

“The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious.” 

“A concerted effort to conceal President Biden’s involvement in the family’s influence peddling scheme.”

These are the findings of a trio of House committees – led by Republicans – into the conduct of President Biden. It’s the final report of the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., initiated the inquest verbally last summer, trying to quash an uprising from his right flank. The House finally formalized the probe through a roll call vote in December.

BIDEN COMMITTED ‘IMPEACHABLE CONDUCT,’ ‘DEFRAUDED UNITED STATES TO ENRICH HIS FAMILY’: HOUSE GOP REPORT

Note that many Republicans wanted any impeachment investigation wrapped up by the start of last fall, not a couple of months before the 2024 election.

“Republicans have worked to impede and obstruct any effort to investigate Mr. Trump’s actual and proven corruption, including his unconstitutional receipt, while Commander-in-Chief, of millions of dollars from foreign governments that sought, and often received, favors from his Administration,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, in his own “counter” report. 

House Republicans released their 292-page report hours before the president was scheduled to speak to the Democratic convention in Chicago.

The document argues that Mr. Biden’s conduct warranted sanctions, saying his “flagrant abuse of office is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., encouraged “all Americans to read this report.” But besides thanking the committees for their work, Johnson didn’t signal there would be a vote on impeachment or imply that the House Republican leadership brass would entertain such a possibility. 

That’s because, at this stage, a prospective vote to impeach President Biden would likely fail on the floor.

Why? It’s about the math. There are at least a dozen House Republicans who oppose impeachment. One senior House GOP leadership source characterized a vote now as “moot.”

Fox is told Republicans soured further on impeachment when President Biden decided against seeking reelection. Plus, Mr. Biden only has five more months before the end of his term. Moreover, a vote on impeachment would put moderate Republicans from swing districts in a bind as the GOP tries to maintain its slim majority. Trotting out a vote on impeachment – just to have a vote on impeachment at this stage – would likely produce a loss on the floor. Democrats could then boomerang the failed impeachment vote on those vulnerable Republicans. Democrats would underscore how Republicans tried for more than a year to impeach President Biden. And it culminated in a failed vote on the floor.

POLITICAL PARALLELS BETWEEN 1968 AND 2024 AS THE DEMOCRATS RETURN TO CHICAGO

A botched impeachment vote would undercut the Republicans’ report itself and constitute an unforced error for the GOP.

It would also mean Republicans may have placed the emphasis on the wrong syllable – just before the election. Mr. Biden’s issues should be old news to Republicans. But focusing on President Biden, right or wrong, is not where the GOP needs to spend its time. Anything tied to impeachment simply steals the spotlight from the narrative Republicans are trying to craft about Vice President Harris. Republicans are still trying to define Harris. Backpedaling to President Biden diminishes that strategy. 

US President Joe Biden during the White House Creator Economy Conference in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. Biden said prices are still too high, though underlying US inflation eased for a fourth month on an annual basis in July. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

If House Republicans truly want to impeach the president – and do it by the book – they would likely need at least another public hearing or two. That would also entail a “markup” session by the Judiciary Committee before sending the matter to the House floor. 

The measure would then go to the House Rules Committee. Then the floor for debate and vote.

And how many articles of impeachment could the GOP engineer for President Biden? One? Two? Four?

COMMENTATOR ON LEFT-LEANING SQUAWK BOX BLASTS DEMS FOR HAVING CLINTON AT DNC

The House impeached Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this year, slapping him with two articles of impeachment: breaking the law and breaching the public trust.

The House levied a singular article of impeachment against former President Trump in 2021 for “incitement of insurrection” after the riot at the Capitol.

In 1998, the House Judiciary Committee prepared four articles of impeachment for former President Clinton after his affair with Monica Lewinsky. The House only approved two articles, lying under oath and obstruction of justice. The House rejected the other articles.

House Republicans will read and consider the impeachment report over the remainder of the congressional recess. Expect some internal debate when House Republicans first meet in a GOP Conference meeting on the morning of September 10.  

But just because House Republican leaders don’t want the House to tangle with impeachment doesn’t mean there won’t be pressure to do so. It’s possible there could be an attempt by hardline conservatives to force a vote on the floor. Fox is told that Republican leaders are bracing for that possibility when the House returns. A rank-and-file Republican member could compel a vote on impeachment via a “privileged” resolution. Such specialized resolutions must come to the floor right away or within two legislative days. Democrats would likely move to table or kill the resolution. Republicans are then placed in the dubious position of voting against tabling the resolution to bring it to the floor – or voting to kill it.

Former President Bill Clinton.  (GEORGE BRIDGES/AFP via Getty Images)

One senior House Democratic source even speculated to Fox that since it was doubtful the House could impeach President Biden, maybe Democrats wouldn’t try to table impeachment. They’d leave that up to Republicans. Imagine this scenario: Republicans moving to table their own impeachment measure. That would certainly slather some egg on the face of the GOP.

But that’s the least of the problems for Republicans. A vote to table the impeachment resolution is one step removed from actually voting on impeachment itself. A failure to table the resolution prompts the House to vote, up or down, on impeachment itself. A vote where Republicans reject impeachment – after they talked about it for the better part of this Congress – looks ham-fisted. It also underscores the problem Republicans struggled with since early 2023 – under both McCarthy and Johnson: ultra-conservative members create headaches for the rest of the party. That includes fights over who should be Speaker to battles over government funding.

In its “conclusion” section of its report, the trifecta of House committees declare the President’s deeds amount “to impeachable conduct.” The committees add that it’s now up to the full House for “evaluation and consideration of appropriate next steps.”

Most Republicans don’t want to wrestle with the impeachment of an elderly president who is partly out the door. Especially as Republicans try to maintain a threadbare House majority – and as former President Trump faces a serious challenge from Vice President Harris. The macro politics of the 2024 election may dictate that impeachment dies quietly on the vine. But the micro politics of the House Republican Conference could suggest something else. 

FIRST ON FOX: The head of a prominent “social justice” group that published an essay calling for “decriminalizing Hamas,” along with defunding the police and eliminating immigration agencies, visited the White House multiple times earlier this year.

Joyce Ajlouny, listed as the general secretary of American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), is shown on official logs visiting the White House twice in March 2024 for a total of three meetings with members of the Biden administration.

Ajlouny and a delegation of religious leaders “met with Biden administration staff from the National Security Council, the Domestic Policy Council, and the Office of Public Engagement to demand an end to the genocide in Gaza,” according to a statement issued by Ajlouny at the time in a press release.

“I joined with people representing many different churches and denominations to call for an immediate and permanent cease-fire and full access for humanitarian aid,” she continued. “The Biden Administration has the power to make this happen.”  

MUSLIM CLERIC WHO PRAISED ADOLF HITLER, HAMAS SPOKE AT HARRIS RUNNING MATE TIM WALZ’S 2019 INAUGURATION

AFSC has pushed a variety of far-left causes, including a September 2019 essay written by author Jonathan Kuttab, a “Palestinian human rights lawyer,” titled, “Decriminalizing Hamas.” 

Kuttab called “to end the demonization of Hamas, bring it into the political process and begin the long road to peace and freedom,” the Washington Free Beacon reported this past week.

AFSC, a self-described “Quaker org” based in Philadelphia, has been a fierce critic of Israel, blaming it as the “root cause” of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel last October.

At the height of the George Floyd riots in 2020, the group also posted a call to defund the police.

“In the wake of ongoing police killings of Black people, AFSC joins a growing number of groups calling on cities and states to invest money in schools, health care, and transformative justice approaches, rather than funding the police,” the post stated.

A person holds up a sign advocating for defunding the police as people gather to mark Juneteenth, Friday, June 19, 2020, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

In another post shared by the group, which is titled, “A Quaker call to defund the police,” the essay says, “Defunding the police is a demand from the Black Lives Matter movement.”

“At this point we need to follow and support the calls and demands from the Black people and grassroots organizations offering profound leadership,” the essay continued. “It is not for us to mute or critique the demands that Black folks are making right now.”

AFSC repeatedly called for defunding the police and abolishing ICE and border patrol on their official X account.

The Marguerite Casey Foundation, a radical far-left organization that has repeatedly supported abolishing police and ICE, is one of several left-wing foundations that has donated tens of thousands of dollars to AFSC, which includes the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a billionaire-fueled fund that keeps popping up in the financials for anti-Israel groups.

BIDEN FOCUSED ON ‘LEGACY’ IN FINAL MONTHS, BUT SKELETON SCHEDULE ‘SIGNALS’ AN EMPTY HOUSE TO RIVALS: EXPERT

President Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (Susan Walsh/AP)

AFSC’s media relations director responded to Fox News Digital’s inquiry about their controversial positions by saying, “AFSC is a Quaker organization that values the life and dignity of every single person.”

“For more than a century we have worked to end wars and alleviate suffering in the U.S. and around the world,” Layne Mullett said. “In 1947, the Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to AFSC and the British Friends Service Council, in recognition of the work of Quakers worldwide to heal rifts, tend to the wounded, and oppose war.”

“We have a long history in Israel and Palestine and began doing relief work in Gaza in 1948,” she continued. “We continue to do vital humanitarian work there today. We have been outspoken advocates to end the occupation of Palestinian and to build lasting peace with justice between Israelis, Palestinians, and all people for decades.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

Democrats are flipping the script on border security, with political ads for races across the country highlighting an issue Republicans have repeatedly used as an attack. In key swing districts that could determine which party controls Congress, Democrats are criticizing a lack of solutions and calling for public safety improvements at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Ken Calvert has had 32 years to secure the border,” Democrat Will Rollins says in an ad that debuted last week, arguing that the incumbent Republican he’s seeking to oust in California’s 41st Congressional District has not gotten the job done.

In the ad, Rollins says that as a prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office, he put away drug lords, Mexican Mafia members and violent criminals. The video cuts to a Calvert for Congress sign that reads “Secure the border!”

But that posture is a lie, Rollins says, pointing to Calvert’s vote against a bipartisan border security bill that would have added 1,500 more agents on the border.

The same day Rollins’ ad dropped, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) launched an ad for his Senate campaign that opens with Arizona’s Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway driving parallel to the border, the steel barrier with concertina wire looming in the background.

“Every day on the border is a challenge,” Hathaway says. “Both parties created it, and neither has the guts to fix it. But Ruben Gallego has stood side-by-side with me, the only member of Congress that has come regularly to my border. And he’s fighting for solutions — better technology, more manpower, so people like me can do our jobs.”

A month earlier, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — a Democrat from Washington state who, in 2022, flipped a seat long held by the GOP — released an ad touting her work to take on the Biden administration and cooperate with Republicans to secure the southern border.

It featured two sheriffs from her state, with Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders saying, “Marie is delivering the tools and manpower we need to tackle fentanyl.”

In a caption accompanying the video on Facebook, Perez wrote, “My bipartisan record is clear. I’m working to secure our border, combat fentanyl, and support law enforcement in Southwest Washington. That’s why I’m backed by Republican and Independent county sheriffs, and our rank-and-file peace officers.”

Asked about the trend, Ben Petersen, spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee, pointed to Rollins and Perez opposing the Republican-led Secure the Border Act of 2023 and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for president as examples of their weakness on the issue.

“Their gaslighting is backfiring because voters know Democrats unleashed the worst border crisis in U.S. history,” Petersen said.

Democratic strategist Michael Trujillo said such ads are a relatively new move for Democratic candidates, who have traditionally avoided focusing on immigration as a campaign issue. They reflect candidates trying to meet voters where they’re at on an issue that has dominated the conservative media for many months.

“Is it a fair policy perspective? Who knows?” he said. “A lot is driven by what voters see on the news, what they’re watching on Fox or what Trump is trying to make a top story. You’re seeing Democrats show their response to this, showing they are not going to just ignore the border and this is a priority.”

Beyond congressional races, the Democratic nominee for president is also touting her record on border security. Harris released an ad this month that highlights her record as a California prosecutor and argues that while fixing the border is tough, “so is Kamala Harris.”

“As a border state prosecutor, she took on drug cartels and jailed gang members for smuggling weapons and drugs across the border,” the ad reads. “As vice president, she backed the toughest border control bill in decades. And as president, she will hire thousands more border agents and crack down on fentanyl and human trafficking.”

Her Republican opponent, former President Trump, has made blaming Democrats for the “border nightmare” a hallmark of his campaign, casting migrants as drug dealers, terrorists and rapists. “We’ve become a dumping ground for the rest of the world,” Trump said at last month’s Republican National Convention.

Trujillo said the Harris campaign also releasing an ad focused on the border shows the issue has moved beyond Republicans and moderate Democrats in swing seats. Talking about the border through the lens of security is smart, he said, because “no one wants to scapegoat immigrants.”

“There’s still a large segment of the population that remembers 9/11 and doesn’t want to have anyone come in that wants to hurt our country,” he said.

Monthly arrests across the southern border have reached the lowest point since September 2020, according to figures released Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Officials credit the Biden administration’s June executive order temporarily blocking asylum access, as well as stepped up immigration enforcement by Mexican authorities and other countries in the region.