12 September 2023
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said he will seek to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden based on the House GOP’s investigations of his family’s foreign business dealings and the prosecution of his son Hunter Biden.
“Today, I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” McCarthy said.
McCarthy said the probe will be led by House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) in coordination with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.), who have been leading the investigations.
“I do not make this decision lightly. And regardless of your party, or who you voted for these facts should concern all Americans,” McCarthy said.
He did not say whether the full House would hold a vote on opening an inquiry. Such a vote could be tricky in the face of resistance from some moderates.
McCarthy’s formal endorsement of impeachment comes after weeks of him saying that he thought the House probes would eventually develop into an impeachment inquiry.
In the months that the House Oversight Committee has been investigating the Biden business dealings, it has not found that Biden directly financially benefited from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, or proved that he made any policy decisions because of them.
Another portion of the House GOP probes center on whether the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, who has been charged with failure to pay income tax and unlawful possession of a firearm, was “slow-walked,” as two whistleblower IRS agents have testified to the House GOP.
The White House, which has vehemently pushed back on GOP efforts to launch an impeachment inquiry, said earlier on Tuesday that moving to a formal investigation is “red meat” for the Republican base.
“Opening impeachment despite zero evidence of wrongdoing by POTUS is simply red meat for the extreme rightwing so they can keep baselessly attacking him,” Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, wrote on X.
McCarthy in 2019 criticized former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for declaring the start of an impeachment inquiry without a formal House vote. He told Breitbart News in a statement earlier this month that if the House moved forward on an impeachment inquiry, “it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”
Sams on Tuesday accused McCarthy of flip-flipping on the matter.
“House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they’ve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing His own GOP members have said so He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flip flopped because he doesn’t have support Extreme politics at its worst,” he wrote on X.
But it isn’t clear McCarthy has the votes to open an inquiry.
A number of moderate Republicans have said they are not ready to move on one, putting into question whether or not McCarthy would have the votes to launch the probe. With Democrats expected to oppose the effort, McCarthy can only afford to lose a small number of Republican votes in the slim GOP majority.
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) — who represents a district Biden won in 2020, and has been against an impeachment inquiry for weeks — re-upped his opposition Tuesday morning.
“As of now I don’t support [an impeachment inquiry],” Bacon said Tuesday morning.
“I think an inquiry should be based on evidence of a crime that points directly to President Biden, or if the President doesn’t cooperate by not providing documents,” he added. “There’s clearly corruption with Hunter using his dad’s name to earn tens of millions of dollars. But impeachment needs to be about the dad, not the son. Many of us don’t want to see impeachment become something that is commonly used against every president.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who also hails from a district Biden won in 2020, told Fox News in an interview last week “we’re not there yet” when asked how he would vote on a measure to launch an impeachment inquiry.
Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), the chairman of the influential Main Street Caucus, have also expressed opposition to opening an impeachment inquiry at this point.
But on the other side of the political spectrum, conservatives have been putting pressure on McCarthy to begin a formal impeachment inquiry.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has become a close ally of the Speaker, said she will not vote to fund the government unless the House votes to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
And Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who has threatened to force votes on impeachment, warned McCarthy that he would force a vote on ousting him as Speaker if he impedes on his efforts.
A source told The Hill on Tuesday morning that McCarthy plans to endorse moving to an inquiry in a closed-door meeting with House Republicans this week. The conference is scheduled to huddle on Wednesday and Thursday.
Updated at 11:51 a.m.