Impeachment won't turf Biden. Here's what Republicans are really trying to achieve

Of course Republicans announced impeachment hearings. This was the most predictable Washington development save for sticky, sweaty summers and cherry blossoms sprouting every spring.

Another safe likelihood is that, whatever happens in these hearings, U.S. President Joe Biden will not be expelled from office by the Senate, because there aren't the votes for that.

This impeachment process might not even get to a vote in the House of Representatives. Even if it does, the House may not have the votes to impeach, given its microscopic Republican majority.

So why do it? 

Why is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy conducting a sudden U-turn, betraying his oft-stated opposition to opening impeachment hearings without at least holding a preliminary vote?

The reason has a bit to do with Biden. And a lot to do with Republicans.

There's undeniable and growing evidence that Biden was, at best, incorrect and, at worst, lying when he insisted his son never drew revenues from China, and that father and son never talked business.

It turns out Hunter Biden did receive lavish payments from a Chinese company previously close to the government in Beijing, and did often introduce his dad to his business partners.

"These allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption," McCarthy said Tuesday as he announced a snap inquiry, to be run by three committees.

The official rationale is to investigate whether anything nefarious happened — whether there's any truth to allegations that the president touched some of his son's foreign money, and whether any family members broke tax or other laws in the process.

Unproven allegations, to be clear.

But really, the unofficial goal is to buy peace. Peace for McCarthy, the embattled speaker; respite from his ever-restless Republican troops.

And ultimately it's to buy them all clemency from the party's de facto leader, Donald Trump, who has threatened any Republicans who fail to back impeachment with career-ending primary challenges.

That pressure was a factor, says one impeachment-skeptic Republican. Colorado Rep. Ken Buck says Trump's core motivation could be strategic — an electoral distraction, making voters talk about Biden's problems and forget his own multiple criminal charges.