Dec. 13 (UPI) — House Republicans are planning a vote on Wednesday that would formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden and allow several committees to continue investigating whether there are “sufficient grounds” to bring charges against the incumbent.
Since reclaiming the House in January, Republicans have intensified their scrutiny of Biden’s family business dealings in an effort to appease hardline party members who accuse the president of abuse of power.
But the effort has remained stuck after failing to garner enough votes among Republicans in committee to bring the impeachment issue before the full chamber. However, more moderates have come on board after the White House indicated subpoenas seeking testimony and other potential evidence were illegitimate without a formal House vote to authorize the probe.
Republicans maintain that the impeachment inquiry will help them get to the bottom of whether the Bidens ever enriched themselves through deals made by the president’s son, Hunter Biden, when he served on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma from 2014 to 2019.
But GOP leadership has been careful to emphasize that formalizing the inquiry doesn’t guarantee that Biden will be impeached.
“We’re not going to prejudge the outcome of this because we can’t,” House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday. “It’s not a political calculation. We’re following the law and we are the rule of law team and I’m going to hold to that.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who has been one of the more vocal advocates for impeaching Biden, also acknowledged the slim chances of the inquiry resulting in the president’s ouster, saying “I don’t think we have the votes to impeach anyone.”
The probe, launched Sept. 12 by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has been focused on drawing a connection between Biden and unethical business practices by his son, Hunter Biden, while working with Burisma.
The vote also set the stage for a potential face-off between House Republicans and Hunter Biden, who was subpoenaed to appear at a closed-door hearing of the House Oversight Committee while he is in Washington this week.
It was unclear, however, if the president’s son would cooperate and respond to questions from lawmakers behind closed doors after he said he would only testify in public due to concerns about misinformation emerging from the proceedings.
“We have seen you use closed-door sessions to manipulate, even distort the facts and misinform the public,” Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell wrote to Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., in late November. “We therefore propose opening the door.
At the time, however, Comer scoffed at the proposal.
“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else,” Comer said. “That won’t stand with House Republicans. Our lawfully issued subpoena to Hunter Biden requires him to appear for a deposition on Dec 13. We expect full cooperation with our subpoena for a deposition but also agree that Hunter Biden should have the opportunity to testify in a public setting at a future date.”
Previously, Republicans called the impeachment effort necessary to obtain official documents and bank records from Biden to determine whether he had taken foreign bribes to help his son, however, there has been no evidence so far to indicate that Biden broke the law, while the president continues to deny any wrongdoing.
In his short time as speaker, Johnson has staunchly defended the probe while expressing confidence that the latest resolution would pass despite the recent removal of New York Rep. George Santos, which left the GOP with a thinner three-vote majority in the chamber.
Democrats, meanwhile, accuse Republicans of “exacting political retribution on behalf of Donald Trump,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.
“It’s painfully obvious that they are trying to hurt President Biden politically to help President Trump get reelected,” Aguilar added.
Adding to the fallout, Hunter Biden was indicted a second time last week on three felonies and six misdemeanor tax offenses after he allegedly failed to pay his taxes, failed to file his tax returns and filed fraudulent tax returns — which were the same issues that drew scrutiny from Republicans.
