President Joe Biden slammed Republicans in Congress over their plans to impeach him, calling them “baseless.”
The House of Representatives voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry into Biden on Wednesday and not a single Republican voted against the motion. Members of the GOP claim the president profited from his time as vice president from 2009 to 2017 and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the same period.
In a statement from the White House, Biden said: “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.”
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He also accused Republicans of ignoring important matters in the House and focusing on party infighting and what the president sees as retributive actions against him.
“There is a lot of work to be done,” Biden said. “But after wasting weeks trying to find a new Speaker of the House and having to expel their own members, Republicans in Congress are leaving for a month without doing anything to address these pressing challenges.”
There is currently no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden, but Republicans have argued that formalizing proceedings will allow them to subpoena the White House for documents and testimony as part of the investigation. Some 40,000 pages of bank records have been subpoenaed already and there have been hours of testimony from witnesses, including from members of the Justice Department.
Formalizing proceedings also means the inquiry will drag on into 2024, creating a possible headache for the Biden campaign as the incumbent president seeks reelection next year.
Impeachment is clearly a possibility, with up to three GOP-held committees deciding if proceedings should move forward. A vote would then go to the House, which has a slim Republican majority.
The GOP could afford to lose just three votes if it sought to press ahead. Impeachment, a fate that has previously afflicted only three presidents, can lead to their removal, but in this case it would have to go to the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Some Republicans have expressed doubts over the inquiry and Colorado Republican Ken Buck said to CNN over the weekend that it was “not the way to run a Congress.” He added: “This is not the way to run a House. We should not be engaging in retribution politics, in retribution impeachments.”
Despite this, Buck voted in favor of formalizing proceedings, along with Nebraska Representative Don Bacon.
Bacon’s communications director, Danielle Jensen, previously told Newsweek: “Currently, there is no vote for impeachment. Only an inquiry. He is voting for the inquiry because the administration has been stonewalling in the last couple of weeks, saying a formal impeachment inquiry has not been voted on.”
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.