Breaking: McCarthy Announces Biden Impeachment Inquiry, Citing 'Serious and Credible' Allegations
Amid the complex landscape in which conservative House Republicans are demanding cuts to the federal budget, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday announced the formal opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
In a social media post published to X, formerly Twitter, McCarthy wrote that House investigators have found a “culture of corruption” surrounding Biden and his family over son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
“I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” McCarthy wrote. “Over the past several months, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct — a culture of corruption.”
I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Over the past several months, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct—a culture of corruption. https://t.co/3uoDlUB3Sy
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) September 12, 2023
The move was widely expected to occur Thursday. On Tuesday, Punchbowl News, a Washington-based online news site, reported that McCarthy planned to tell Republican House members during a closed-door meeting Thursday that a formal impeachment inquiry is the “logical next step” of existing committee-level investigations into the president and his son, Hunter Biden.
The report said McCarthy, who is under pressure from GOP conservatives, was expected to tell Republican members that enough information has been found to create a formal process that would then have the power to subpoena bank records of Biden family members and secure other documents.
The impeachment process, as with the budget process, has multiple Republican Party crosscurrents.
Moderate Republicans such as Reps. Ken Buck of Colorado and Don Bacon of Nebraska have said they don’t see the facts gathered to date as rising to the level of impeachment.
However, conservative Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida has said if McCarthy fails to launch a formal inquiry, he will begin the process of removing McCarthy as speaker.
The impeachment inquiry is inextricably tangled with the process of adopting a federal budget.
As noted by Axios on Tuesday, some conservatives have said they will not vote for budget bills unless an impeachment inquiry begins.
However, according to CNN, Senate Republicans such as West Virginia’s Shelley Moore Capito, Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville and Florida’s Marco Rubio, have looked askance at impeachment, meaning even if an inquiry is launched, achieving anything seems unlikely at this point.
McCarthy said Monday that new revelations are popping up constantly, referencing the president’s use of fake names in emails to his son, Hunter Biden, while he was vice president, according to NBC.
“It only raises more and more questions, and we’re gonna have to find the answers,” McCarthy said. “And this is all information that just has been coming forward that we’ve been able to find out. But the other information is we find that the Biden family delays everything. It benefits them to delay the information. The American public deserves to know.”
Some House conservatives say even going ahead with impeachment will not alter their resolve to force budget cuts, perhaps even at the cost of a government shutdown when the current budget expires at the end of the month, according to Fox News.
Conservative Republican Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina has accused McCarthy of “dangling” impeachment to keep Republicans in line on the budget, according to Fox.
Other conservatives are restive.
“Hiding behind impeachment to screw America with status quo massive funding … will not end well,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said earlier this month, according to Fox.
“You’re not going to trade one for the other with me, and I think a lot of members feel that way,” Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who chairs the conservative Freedom Caucus said, according a Washington Post report published Tuesday.
“We’re asking for a very modest change in the status quo,” Perry said. “And, oh, by the way, it’s one that the speaker agreed to in January.”
The Post, citing sources it said were lawmakers and senior aides to leaders, said the likely outcome of all the arguments is to postpone the day of reckoning by approving a continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of October while budget issues were hashed out.
CORRECTION, Sept. 14, 2023: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the formal opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Tuesday. An earlier version of this article said it occurred on a different day.
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