House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Tuesday opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden regarding allegations surrounding the President’s son, Hunter Biden.
McCarthy’s announcement came as he House returned from August break amid threats of a government shutdown at the end of the month. Far-right House Republicans, like members of the Freedom Caucus as well as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) have been threatening to hold the federal budget hostage unless an impeachment inquiry goes forward.
Despite House-led GOP investigations having not previously provided any direct evidence that the President financially benefited from his son’s foreign business dealings, McCarthy said Tuesday that “House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct.”
He went on to say that Biden “did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his families foreign business dealings,” adding, “Eyewitnesses have testified that the President joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions. Dinners, resulted in cars and millions of dollars into his son’s business partners. We know the bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to the Biden’s family members and associates to various shell companies.”
The allegations House Republicans are leveling against the President include abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption, which McCarthy said, “warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.”
He called the impeachment inquiry the “logical next step” in the House’s investigation, and it will be led by Committee Chairs James Comer (R-KY) on Oversight, Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Judiciary, and Jason Smith (R-MO) on Ways and Means.
McCarthy is opening the impeachment inquiry into the President despite lacking support from House GOP moderates and very little support in the Senate, including from Republicans in the upper chamber.
“Biden-district Republicans are the reason that Republicans are in the majority, have the slim majority that we have today,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) said Monday. “And if we want to keep that majority, we have to keep those folks in their seats.”
The House Freedom Caucus currently has fewer than 50 members, making up roughly 22% of the entire GOP conference.
The last government shutdown occurred in December 2018-January 2019 and lasted for five weeks in a dispute between then-President Trump and Democratic Congressional leadership over funding his U.S.-Mexico border wall. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, that shutdown—the nation’s longest ever—lowered the nation’s projected level of real GDP in the first quarter of 2019 by $8 billion, of which the CBO estimated only $5 billion was recovered.
