WASHINGTON (CN) — With just days left in the legislative year and a laundry list of pressing policy issues left unaddressed, the House voted Wednesday to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The lower chamber voted 221-212 to approve the Republican-led impeachment resolution, which allows House committees to make official their monthslong investigation into the Biden family’s finances and business dealings and opens the door for a possible vote to remove the president from office.
GOP lawmakers have long accused President Biden of leveraging his political influence to enrich himself and his family while he served as vice president under former President Barack Obama. Lawmakers have dialed in on Biden’s relationship with his son Hunter, who they claim used his father’s position to advance his own business dealings.
Although Republicans have collected bank records, interviewed witnesses and held numerous hearings, they have yet to uncover any evidence directly tying President Biden to any financial malfeasance or other impeachable conduct.
Lacking a smoking gun, congressional Republicans have regardless forged ahead with their inquiry. Wednesday’s impeachment resolution authorizes the House Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees to continue their separate but connected probes into the president.
During remarks on the House floor Wednesday afternoon, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said that President Biden “must be held accountable for his lies and obstruction.”
The Kentucky Republican laid out what he framed as evidence implicating the president, including allegations that Biden had spoken to his son’s business associates “by speakerphone” and that he had met in person with others. Comer cited testimony from Hunter Biden’s business associate Devon Archer — who never told lawmakers that the president had discussed business on any of these phone calls.
The Oversight Committee chair also pointed to so-called “shell companies” which he said the Bidens used to funnel money internationally. While Hunter Biden has acknowledged using such companies, their use is legal and Republicans have yet to prove that the president was connected to them in any way.
Democrats, meanwhile, have said that their colleagues’ impeachment probe is a purely political stunt aimed at putting President Biden on the same level as former President Trump, who faces scores of criminal charges.
“The Republicans don’t work for the American people,” said Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern during remarks Wednesday on the House floor. “They work for Donald Trump. He says ‘jump,’ they respond ‘how high?’”
McGovern also contended that GOP lawmakers are intent to keep the impeachment process firmly under wraps. The lawmaker pointed to heated debate Tuesday in the House Rules Committee, during which Republicans shot down a Democratic amendment to the proposed impeachment resolution that would have required the House to publicize parts of their investigation.
“They’re allergic to transparency,” McGovern said of House Republicans. “They want no transparency so they can go on Fox News, distort the facts and keep this whole ridiculous charade going.”
Republicans’ impeachment resolution was largely based on a similar measure passed in 2019 by Democrats as they moved to impeach former President Trump for the first time. The GOP’s version, however, left out language requiring an open and transparent probe.
Republican lawmakers on the Rules Committee argued Tuesday that they had omitted the transparency requirement because they wanted to leave power in the hands of committee chairmen.
Democrats, however, weren’t satisfied with that explanation, claiming that GOP committee leaders — such as Comer — had already misrepresented facts and could not be given power to decide what parts of the impeachment probe are made public.
Wednesday’s vote formalizing the impeachment inquiry came as Congress appears set to punt several pressing policy issues into the new year, including federal budget talks and an aid package for Ukraine. The House is scheduled Thursday to hold its last votes of the legislative year.
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether House Republicans’ impeachment effort has legs. Even if the lower chamber managed to pass an impeachment vote against President Biden, it is unlikely that the Democrat-led Senate would vote to convict him.
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