The U.S House of Representatives has voted to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The House voted on partisan lines, 221-212 to launch the inquiry.
This came even as Republicans have failed to produce evidence showing that the President financially benefitted from his family’s business dealings.
The impeachment inquiry will give Republicans more power to enforce subpoenas and defend their investigation in court.
House Oversight Chair James Comer and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordans impeachment inquiry vote “sent a message loud and clear” to White House
Jordan added, “The House has now spoken and I think pretty loudly, pretty clearly with every single Republican voting in favor of moving into this official impeachment inquiry phase.”
Jordan said formalizing the inquiry will help investigators get “key individuals in to speak to us in a more timely fashion” and get access to additional documents.
Comer said there are roughly 5,000 emails from Biden’s time as vice president where he used a pseudonym. He said the National Archives has turned over around 1,200 pages included in their latest tranche of documents provided to the House Oversight Committee.
Although House Republicans voted to formalize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, GOP leadership has made a point to indicate the move does not mean impeaching the President is certain to happen, even as pressure grows within the party and among the Republican base.
“We’re not going to prejudge the outcome of this because we can’t,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters .
“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,” he added.
House Majority Whip, Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, echoed Johnson’s sentiment by telling reporters, “Voting in favor of an impeachment inquiry does not equal impeachment.”
Since former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unilaterally launched the inquiry in September, a trio of committees leading the investigation have interviewed various officials from the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service while also obtaining a mountain of documents and new bank records, including from Biden family members.
Even as Republicans issue new subpoenas and schedule more depositions, including with the President’s brother and son, they still have not uncovered credible evidence that backs up their loftiest claims against Biden.
There has only been one hearing related to the inquiry since its launch, where the expert witnesses called by Republicans acknowledged that the investigators hadn’t yet presented enough evidence to prove the accusations they were leveling.
“Baseless Impeachment Stunt”
In a statement, Joe Biden denounced the Republican action as a “baseless impeachment stunt.”
He insinuated that Republicans are avoiding “the issues facing the American people.”
“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. 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.”
Joe Biden
Biden added, “The American people deserve better.”
Referring to issues like the economy, the southern border, Ukraine and Israel, Biden said, “Republicans in Congress won’t act to help.”
He also called out congressional Republicans for leaving Washington, DC, before acting to make progress on any of these issues.
“There is a lot of work to be done. 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,” Biden said in the statement.
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