The US House of Representatives (lower chamber), with a Republican majority, voted in favor of starting the process of impeaching Democratic President Joe Biden. The House of Representatives of Congress approved the investigation by 221-212.
a According to a BBC article Republicans believe that by starting the process, they will have more opportunities to collect evidence of possible illegal actions by Biden. The three Republican-led House committees suspect, among other things, bribery and corruption, which they say occurred while Biden was vice president during Barack Obama’s presidency.
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy began investigating in September to find out whether Biden directly benefited from his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. McCarthy said the committee’s investigation revealed a “culture of corruption” surrounding the Biden family.
At the same time, Republicans have not yet revealed any evidence regarding their accusations, and according to Biden, his opponents are attacking him with lies.
Authorizing the investigation is not the same as voting to impeach Biden, but it does increase the likelihood that the House will eventually try to impeach Biden.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement that they would not prejudge the outcome of the investigation, but “the evidence is impossible to ignore.”
If a formal impeachment inquiry is launched, leading to a vote in the House and a hearing in the Senate, it will cause a major headache for the president in the 2024 election year. But even if the House ultimately decides to impeach the president, the Senate it controls will almost certainly Democrats will acquit the president.
Joe Biden said after the decision: Republican representatives “instead of dealing with urgent matters, are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt, which even Republicans themselves admit is not supported by the facts.”
So far, Republicans have held a hearing related to the investigation, in which two expert witnesses called by Republicans said there was not enough evidence to impeach the president.
However, Republicans believe that the Biden family and its business partners received more than $24 million from China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Ukraine between 2014 and 2019, and they believe there may have been a suspicion of abuse of power, and that Joe Biden’s influence was used in his son’s deals.
The president’s son, Hunter Biden, did not appear before the Republican-led investigative committee on Wednesday, but in a statement outside the US Congress building, he defended his father, who he said was “not financially involved” in the transactions in question. He said he was willing to answer questions at a public hearing.
81-year-old Joe Biden is up for re-election, and in the US presidential election in November 2024, 77-year-old former President Donald Trump, who has been indicted in court cases, is likely to be the Republican challenger.
