The House of Representatives voted along party lines to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over corruption allegations. House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, were able to pass the resolution despite their wafer-thin House majority.
Summary
The House of Representatives voted along party lines to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over corruption allegations. House Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, were able to pass the resolution despite their wafer-thin House majority.
- The resolution passed the House by a 221-212 party-line vote, with one Democrat absent. Even if the House decides to impeach Biden, any conviction vote is almost certain to fail in the Senate, where Democrats control the chamber by a 51-49 margin.
- The move to formalize the inquiry grants House Republicans’ subpoenas additional legal heft as they consider bringing impeachment charges, which could come as soon as January.
- “Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” President Biden said in a statement after the vote. “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.”
- The vote came hours after Hunter Biden, the President’s only surviving son whose business dealings and influence peddling are central to House Republicans’ case against Biden, defied a GOP subpoena to appear for a deposition. House Republicans pointed to his defiance as a reason that “reinforces the need for a formal vote.”
- After the vote on Wednesday, the younger Biden told Axios House Republicans “have weaponized my dad’s love for me, and turned his greatest strengths — his compassion, his empathy, his authenticity — into evidence of corrupt complicity. They’ve made it really hard for people to square that circle, which is why the Trump cult is obsessed with me.”
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House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) both vowed to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress for his refusal to testify and his demands that Congress conform to his desire for a public hearing.
- NBC News recalled, “Earlier this year, a handful of moderate Republicans had voiced skepticism about whether there was enough evidence to kick off an impeachment investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings…Three months later, not a single Republican voted against the inquiry resolution — a remarkable show of GOP unity given how divided the party had been on the issue earlier this year.”
- The New York Times observed, “Since winning the majority, House Republicans have been investigating myriad aspects of President Biden’s family and administration, hunting for evidence that could be used to prove he is corrupt and should be impeached. Mr. Trump, still seething over being impeached twice, has urged on their investigation at every step.”
- CNN noted “Part of the reason for Wednesday’s vote came from the White House telling the trio of GOP-led congressional committees leading the investigation that its subpoenas were illegitimate without a formal House vote to authorize the inquiry. That prompted some reluctant, more moderate Republican lawmakers to get on board with their party’s investigative efforts. The Trump administration made a similar argument against House Democrats at the start of his 2019 impeachment.”
- House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) told the New York Post “the White House forced Republicans’ hand after ‘blocking witnesses from testifying’ and ‘withholding thousands of documents,’ including emails Biden traded with his son Hunter Biden and his son’s business partners while he was vice president, which are held at the National Archives.”
- The Washington Examiner highlighted “five times the Hunter Biden influence peddling story changed.” Biden’s story about his involvement with his son’s business has shifted significantly since his initial claims to have “never discussed” his son’s business dealings.
- The Editors of National Review called the vote “a political victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson.” Even so, they concluded, “Even if he’s impeached, the only way Biden is getting removed from office is if the public concludes next year that, among other things, his assurances about his honesty and ethics were flagrantly false.”
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© Dominic Moore, 2023
