House votes to formalize impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with floor vote
By Saqib Saleem Qureshi
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House Republicans voted Wednesday to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden as their investigation reaches a critical juncture and right-wing pressure grows.
In a 221-212 vote, all GOP members supported the resolution to formalize the inquiry – including Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who had said earlier this week he was leaning against it.
Up until this point, House Republicans had not had enough votes to legitimize their ongoing inquiry with a full chamber vote. The probe has struggled to uncover wrongdoing by the president, which is why it hasn’t garnered the unified support of the full GOP conference.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan took a victory lap after vote, overcoming the lack of support for the inquiry when it was first unilaterally launched in September under then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“We are very pleased with the vote today,” Comer, a Kentucky Republican, told reporters. “I think that sent a message loud and clear to the White House.”
Jordan said the vote would “help us get those key individuals in to speak to us in a more timely fashion.”
“The House has now spoken and I think pretty loudly, pretty clearly with every single Republican voting in favor of moving into this official impeachment inquiry phase,” Jordan said.
Biden said in a statement shortly after the vote, “Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”
The vote came after Hunter Biden defied Republican investigators’ subpoena for closed-door testimony and reiterated that he is willing to testify publicly as part of the GOP-led investigation into the president.
“I am here to testify at a public hearing, today, to answer any of the committees’ legitimate questions,” Hunter Biden said in his first public statement since being criminally indicted twice. “Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say.”
Following Hunter’s statement, the Republican chairman behind the impeachment inquiry into the president said they will start contempt of Congress proceedings against the president’s son for not participating in the closed-door deposition.
Hunter defended his father, saying, “Let me state as clearly as I can, my father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with the Chinese private businessman, not in my investments home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist.”
He continued, “In the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances. But to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd. It’s shameless. There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen.”
