In his first remarks since House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy announced the launch of an impeachment probe, U.S President Joe Biden said instead of being concerned about the inquiry, “I’m focused on the things the American people want me focused on.”
“I don’t know quite why, but they just knew they wanted to impeach me,” Biden said.
“Now, the best I can tell, they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government,” he added.
Biden practically shrugged off the impeachment inquiry, saying, “I get up every day, not a joke, not focused on impeachment. I’ve got a job to do.”
Earlier this week, U.S House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy directed a House of Representatives committee to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family’s business dealings, particularly corruption allegations relating to his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business.
McCarthy’s decision starts what are expected to be weeks of Republican-led hearings intended to convince Americans that Biden profited from the business dealings of his son and other family members.
However, it is unclear if the Republicans have the evidence to support their long-running claims, or even the votes for impeachment.
Biden’s remarks followeed after White House Press Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed the inquiry as a “political stunt.”
She deflected questions about the details to the White House counsel’s office.
She averred, “This is an entire exercise of how to do this in an illegitimate way … It is going after the President politically, not about the truth.”
The White House Press Secretary iterated that Republicans have turned up no evidence that Biden did anything wrong “because the President didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Even House Republicans have said the evidence does not exist,” she said.
The White House has said that Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business affairs.
And so far, despite months of investigations, Republicans have presented no significant evidence of wrongdoing by President Joe Biden, who spoke often to his son and as Vice President stopped by a business dinner with his son’s associates.
Hunter Biden’s Attorney, Abbe Lowell stressed in a statement, “Rather than waste time and taxpayer dollars on this political sideshow, Mr. McCarthy should lead the Congress to do real work of governing.”
Lowell added, “Americans deserve better.”
No Similarities Between Trump Impeachments And Impeachment Probe Of Biden
An impeachment inquiry into Biden would be the third presidential impeachment inquiry since 2019. Former President Donald Trump underwent two impeachment inquiries, and was twice impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate.
Rep.Ted Lieu, a top Democrat, said that there are no similarities between the Democratic impeachments of Trump and the Republicans’ pursuit of Biden.
“We had mountains of evidence,” he said. “That’s why articles of impeachment … were passed, and that’s why we had a bipartisan vote of U.S. senators to convict Donald Trump.”
Lieu added that while the Democratic majority did not ultimately have enough support to remove Trump from office, they were able to get a handful of members from the other side to join them.
The Biden impeachment inquiry will be led by House Oversight Committee Chairman, James Comer.
Comer stated that he does not want the inquiry to last into election season.
“I hope not. I hope we can get it through as quickly as possible. I’m an impatient person. We wouldn’t have to do impeachment inquiry if this administration would cooperate with us,” he noted.
Meanwhile, the White House has sent emails to some U.S media organisations urging them to “ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”
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