House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday announced his endorsement of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in an effort to seek bank records and other documents from the president and his son Hunter Biden.
Speaking to reporters during a news conference Tuesday, McCarthy said an impeachment inquiry into Biden is a “logical next step” of the GOP-led investigations that have been going on for months.
“This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public is exactly what we want to know the answers,” he said. “I believe the president would want to answer these questions and allegations as well.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., will give members an update in a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Thursday morning, the sources said.
Punchbowl News first reported the development.
McCarthy has signaled for weeks that the House could take up an impeachment inquiry, which would provide additional legal power to the House’s investigations into the Biden family. The GOP-led investigations have not uncovered evidence of wrongdoing by the president, or connections between the president and Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
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Speaking to reporters Monday night, McCarthy claimed that new revelations were turning up each day, citing Biden’s use of pseudonyms on emails when he was vice president.
“It only raises more and more questions, and we’re gonna have to find the answers,” McCarthy said Monday. “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.”
The House Oversight Committee’s investigation, which focuses Hunter Biden’s meetings and payments from several foreign sources, has yet to produce direct evidence showing that the president either received this money or helped solicit it. Hunter Biden’s business partner, Devon Archer, testified last month that Hunter would frequently call his father while meeting foreign business associates — but that those conversations only involved pleasantries such as discussing the weather.
It is unclear whether there are sufficient votes within the GOP conference to open an impeachment inquiry into the president. Some politically vulnerable and centrist Republicans have expressed wariness about whether to launch a formal impeachment inquiry, saying the GOP doesn’t have enough evidence to make the move.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., a member of the hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus, argued that Republicans should not prioritize impeachment, noting the lack of evidence that GOP-led committees have produced from their investigations into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
“There is not a strong connection at this point between the evidence on Hunter Biden and any evidence connecting the president,” Buck said in an interview with “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Sunday.
The White House is ramping up a war room to lead a response to a Republican impeachment inquiry, NBC News previously reported. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are also preparing an active defense of the president as their GOP counterparts continue to pursue evidence to support a potential inquiry.
McCarthy’s move to endorse an impeachment inquiry into Biden comes amid pressure from right-wing Republicans, who are pushing back against a short-term funding bill to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month.
McCarthy on Monday told reporters “of course we can avoid a shutdown.” Asked about a short-term spending measure, called a continuing resolution, to fund the government past Sept. 30 while spending negotiations continue, McCarthy said that he would like to get the work done now rather than look to stopgap legislation.
“The one thing I will tell you, we’re not spending the type of money the Senate wants to spend. Not going to happen,” he said.
McCarthy also faces threats to remove him as speaker. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., on Sunday floated the idea that he would try to force a vote to oust McCarthy if he doesn’t press forward with an impeachment inquiry — and would even work with Democrats to do so if needed, given the uncertain support for impeachment inquiry among the House GOP.
“If I make a motion to remove Kevin, how may democrat votes can I count on?” Gaetz asked Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., in a Sunday post to X, formerly known as Twitter.
But Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., an ally of Gaetz, said Monday that she opposed a possible move to force McCarthy out. “I really hope that they don’t do something like that. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” she said.
But McCarthy on Monday brushed off Gaetz’s threats to oust him when asked whether he’s worried about his gavel, saying, “Not at all.”
Asked if he thinks Gaetz will bring a motion to vacate, McCarthy replied, “Matt is Matt.”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
