Impeach Biden? Incoming GOP House majority grapples with how to use new power
Cami Mondeaux
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As Republicans prepare to take control of the House for the next two years, several party leaders are already eyeing opportunities to investigate President Joe Biden and his family’s business dealings — inquiries that some Republicans have suggested could lead to impeachment.
As lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill this week to finish off the final business of the current Congress, some Republican leaders vowed to investigate Hunter Biden’s financial dealings and any ties they may have to the president. Republicans have also hinted at other investigations they want to open once they have control of the lower chamber, including inquiries into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in late 2021 and the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
HOUSE REPUBLICANS PREPARE TO OPEN HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATIONS AFTER MIDTERM ELECTIONS
“This investigation will be a top priority,” said Rep. James Comer during a Thursday press conference providing an update to the House Oversight Committee’s investigation into Hunter Biden. “This is an investigation of Joe Biden and why he lied to the American people about his knowledge and participation in his family’s international business schemes.”
Hunter Biden’s business dealings have long been of interest to the Republican Party, first taking prominence during the 2020 election as the GOP sought to determine whether then-candidate Joe Biden benefited financially from his son’s transactions, pointing to national security concerns.
Those dealings have also prompted some Republicans to seek punishment for President Biden, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introducing an article of impeachment in January 2021 based on his son’s finances. That resolution failed to gain any traction in the House.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) previously rebuffed calls from the Right to impeach Biden once Republicans take control of the House in January, noting he doesn’t think anyone in the Biden administration has committed offenses grave enough to do so.
“I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” McCarthy, who could become House speaker in the next Congress, said in October. “I don’t see it before me right now. You watch what the Democrats did. They all came out and said they would impeach before [Donald] Trump was ever sworn in. There wasn’t a purpose for it. If you spent all that time arguing against using impeachment for political purposes, you got to be able to sustain exactly what you said.”
Some newly elected rank-and-file Republicans have also voiced concerns about launching investigations that could be viewed as overtly partisan, particularly those who were elected in blue districts that President Biden won in 2020.
“The top priority is to deal with inflation and the cost of living,” Rep.-elect Mike Lawler, who unseated Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Sean Patrick Maloney in New York, told CNN. “What I don’t want to see is what we saw in the Trump administration where Democrats went after the president and the administration incessantly.”
Other members-elect have suggested Republicans should focus on other issues that helped them get elected, such as crime and inflation.
“I think that for at least the first six months, we should work on making this country energy-independent,” Rep.-elect George Santos told Fox News. “We should work on reducing crime across metropolitan areas such as New York City. And then we can start talking about investigations.”
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Top Republicans have also distanced themselves from suggestions their investigations are purely designed to lay the groundwork for impeachment, noting they won’t be involved in deciding whether charges should be pressed.
“I’ve had members come up to me and mention that,” Comer said, according to Axios. “It’s not something that’s on my radar. I’m investigating, and once we conclude the investigation, we’ll turn it over to the appropriate people and go on to the next investigation.”