Impeachment investigation launched against Joe Biden

Under pressure from his party’s far right, Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy approved the start of an impeachment probe into US Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday.

investigation launched against Joe Biden: McCarthy declared, “I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” charging the Democratic leader with misleading the public about his son Hunter’s international business dealings.

McCarthy told reporters, “House Republicans have found serious and credible allegations about President Biden’s conduct.” “These allegations, when considered collectively, depict a corrupt culture.”

Republicans have often criticised Hunter Biden, 53, for his business connections in China and Ukraine when his father was Barack Obama’s vice president.

A Justice Department special counsel is presently looking into Hunter Biden, a recovering heroin user, for probable tax evasion. He is anticipated to be charged before the end of this month for a guns violation.

“The accuser claimed that various shell companies directed nearly $20 million in payments to Biden family members and associates via bank records.”

The right side of the party, which is committed to Donald Trump, has been pressuring McCarthy for months to initiate an impeachment investigation into the 80-year-old Biden. The White House swiftly denounced the action as “extreme politics at its worst.”

White House spokesperson Ian Sams said on X, formerly known as Twitter, “House Republicans have been looking into the President for nine months, and they have found no evidence of wrongdoing.”

Will follow the evidence wherever it leads us.

McCarthy stated the “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption” against Biden “warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.” Further, McCarthy had to make concessions to the extreme right of the party to obtain the important position of speaker.

McCarthy stated, “We have discovered that President Biden did lie to the American people about his personal awareness of his family’s international business interests.

The accuser claimed, “Bank records indicate that various shell companies directed nearly $20 million in payments to Biden family members and associates.”

McCarthy stated that the Republican-controlled House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees will conduct the impeachment investigation.

“We will go wherever the evidence takes us,” he declared.

McCarthy previously declared he would hold a vote in the House before initiating an impeachment investigation because his ability to retain the speaker’s gavel depends on backing from right-wing hardliners.

But in response to criticism from the far right and concerns that he might not secure enough support on the House floor, he withdrew from that promise.

“He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, but now he flip-flopped because he doesn’t have support,” said Sams, a spokeswoman for the White House.

Several moderate Republican House members have expressed doubts about starting an impeachment investigation into Biden.

As a “political stunt”

The US Constitution allows for the impeachment of a president for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Democratic members criticised the investigation, calling it a politicised stunt meant to take vengeance for the double impeachment of former Republican president Trump by the Democratically controlled House at the time.

Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida’s Democratic Party stated that there was “no evidence, just Trump’s order to impeach.”

The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler, stated that there is “absolutely no basis for launching this so-called inquiry.”

“President Biden has done nothing wrong,” Nadler argued. “Speaker McCarthy may continue to hold his position for the time being, but he has again capitulated to the most extreme elements of the Republican party.”

A spokesperson for Biden’s re-election campaign, Ammar Moussa, referred to the impeachment investigation as a “political stunt.”

Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, will stand trial in Washington, D.C., in March on allegations of conspiring to rig the November 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.

While in power, the House impeached Trump twice: once for attempting to obtain political information on Biden from the Ukraine and again for his supporters’ assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.