The president of the United States House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy, launched an investigation Tuesday to impeach Joe Biden, pushing Congress toward a contentious process with little chance of success to the Democratic president will be removed.
The bill sets the stage for months of divisive House hearings that could derail congressional efforts to prevent a government shutdown and overload the 2024 presidential race, in which former President Donald Trump hopes to gain revenge. his loss in the 2020 election to Biden. and take back the White House. .
White House spokesman Ian Sams warned that Republicans had found no evidence of wrongdoing. “Extreme politics at its worst,” he wrote on social media.
Republicans, who now narrowly control the House of Representatives, accuse Biden of benefiting while he served as vice president between 2009 and 2017 from his son Hunter’s overseas businesses. , although they did not present evidence.
Biden previously mocked Republicans for their plans to seek impeachment. No US president has ever been removed from office by impeachment, but the procedure – once a rarity – has become the norm.
Many in McCarthy’s party were angered when the House, which is controlled by Democrats, sought to impeach Trump in 2019 and 2021, although he was acquitted both times by the Senate. However, some hardline Republicans have now indicated they will try to remove McCarthy as House leader if he does not act against Biden.
“I have directed the House committees to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” McCarthy told reporters. “We will go where the evidence takes us.”
A former business partner of the younger Biden testified at a House hearing that Hunter Biden sold the “illusion” of coming to power when his father was vice president, according to a transcript released last week. month.
