House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says Republican lawmakers may consider an impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden over unproven claims of financial misconduct, responding to enormous GOP pressure to demonstrate support for Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In remarks Tuesday at the Capitol, McCarthy said the questions<\/u><\/a> House Republicans are raising about the Biden family finances<\/u><\/a> need to be investigated. So far, he acknowledged, the House\u2019s probes have not proven any wrongdoing, but an impeachment inquiry \u201callows Congress to get the information to be able to know the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n An impeachment inquiry by the House would be a first step toward bringing articles of impeachment. Such a probe could be as lengthy or swift as the House determines, potentially stretching into campaign season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe will follow this to the end,\u201d he said, first floating the idea late Monday on Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s the strongest comment yet from McCarthy on a potential Biden impeachment after the Republican leader sidelined earlier efforts<\/u><\/a> by House conservatives to launch such an inquiry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/a>With a slim majority in the House, McCarthy faces demands from Trump allies to elevate their priorities. Trump himself questioned at a Fox News town hall last week why Biden has not yet been impeached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McCarthy has not yet endorsed Trump, who is the GOP\u2019s early frontrunner for president, or any other Republican candidates. He denied a report that he is considering House votes to expunge Trump\u2019s two impeachments<\/u><\/a> as another way of showing support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McCarthy on Tuesday gave no timeline for launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden and said he hadn\u2019t spoken to Trump about it. He declined to say if he would be making a presidential endorsement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked if he felt pressure from Trump, he scoffed, \u201cDo I look like I\u2019m under pressure?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House spokesman Ian Sams said the House GOP\u2019s \u201ceagerness to go after POTUS regardless of the truth is seemingly bottomless,\u201d using shorthand for the President of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInstead of focusing on the real issues Americans want us to address like continuing to lower inflation or create jobs, this is what the House GOP wants to prioritize,\u201d Sams said on Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans in Congress have ramped up investigations of Biden and his son Hunter Biden<\/u><\/a>. House Republicans are digging into the family finances, particularly payments the younger Biden received from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that became tangled in the first impeachment of Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hunter Biden has since reached an agreement with prosecutors to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges<\/u><\/a> of having failed to pay income taxes for several years. He is set to appear in court this week in that case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Republicans continue to pursue a largely debunked theory stemming from the first Trump impeachment about Burisma, with newer information. An unnamed confidential FBI informant claimed<\/u><\/a> that Burisma company officials in 2015 and 2016 sought to pay the Bidens $5 million each in return for their help ousting a Ukrainian prosecutor who was purportedly investigating the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Justice Department launched a review of the informant\u2019s claims in 2020<\/u><\/a> under Trump\u2019s Attorney General William Barr. The probe was closed eight months later with insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, last week, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released the FBI\u2019s so-called FD-1023 form<\/u><\/a> \u2014 with unverified claims from the informant \u2014 providing a full, public look at the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grassley is working with House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., who had subpoenaed the FBI<\/u><\/a> for the document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats on the Oversight panel countered Monday with a four-page memo rebutting the allegations. They point to other documents, including from Lev Parnas, a former associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani who claimed to have first-hand knowledge of some of the conversations and disputed the allegations. Parnas said one of the Burisma officials told him the claims are not true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Democrats also note that it wasn\u2019t just Biden who wanted Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin ousted<\/u><\/a>, but other Western allies were also raising concerns that Shokin was failing to investigate corruption in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden has repeatedly said he never speaks to his son about his overseas business dealings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined Tuesday to entertain questions about potential impeachment proceedings, reflecting the administration\u2019s thinking that it is a political diversion that doesn\u2019t have support of the public or even the entirety of McCarthy\u2019s GOP majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McCarthy\u2019s brief comments late Monday on Fox appeared intentional rather than simple banter with the show\u2019s host, Sean Hannity. He said that Biden\u2019s actions are \u201crising to the level of impeachment inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The speaker\u2019s appearance came as Trump was meeting at his Bedminster, N.J., club with Ohioans including Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who would presumably lead an impeachment inquiry. A spokesman for Jordan said the visit was about unrelated Ohio matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n