The House voted 221 to 212 on Wednesday to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, "pushing forward with a yearlong GOP investigation that has failed to produce evidence of anything approaching high crimes or misdemeanors," The New York Times reported. Republicans are mostly trying to link Biden to the overseas business dealings of his son Hunter Biden.
The impeachment inquiry resolution, passed along party lines, doesn't accuse President Biden of any wrongdoing, but House Republicans say they need the imprimatur of an authorized impeachment investigation to enforce subpoenas and overcome other legal obstacles. Democrats denounced the vote as a political stunt designed to harm Biden in next year's presidential election and sate former President Donald Trump's calls for avenging his own two impeachments.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The House approved the inquiry after voting to allow whole milk in school lunches and to condemn a handful of university presidents over their testimony on antisemitism on campuses. "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," Biden said in a statement.
Hours before the impeachment inquiry vote, Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance outside the Capitol, underscoring his willingness to testify publicly before House impeachment investigators but not behind closed doors. House Republicans, who had subpoenaed him for a private deposition on Wednesday, said they will pursue contempt of Congress charges.
"I am here," Biden said. "Let me state as clearly as I can: My father was not financially involved in my business." He acknowledged making bad decisions while addicted to drugs — he's fighting federal tax and gun charges from that time period. But House Republicans have "ridiculed my struggle with addiction; they belittled my recovery; and they have tried to dehumanize me — all to embarrass and damage my father," Biden added. "They have taken the light of my father's love for me and done their best to turn it into darkness."
President Biden, who still checks on Hunter regularly, is worried about how his last living son is holding up under the scrutiny and concerned he could even backslide into addiction, five aides and confidantes told Politico.
-
The dazzling coral gardens of Raja AmpatThe Week Recommends Region of Indonesia is home to perhaps the planet’s most photogenic archipelago.
-
Trump’s White House ballroom: a threat to the republic?Talking Point Trump be far from the first US president to leave his mark on the Executive Mansion, but to critics his remodel is yet more overreach
-
‘Never more precarious’: the UN turns 80The Explainer It’s an unhappy birthday for the United Nations, which enters its ninth decade in crisis
-
Is Mike Johnson rendering the House ‘irrelevant’?Talking Points Speaker has put the House on indefinite hiatus
-
Young Republicans: Does the GOP have a Nazi problem?Feature Leaked chats from members of the Young Republican National Federation reveal racist slurs and Nazi jokes
-
Supreme Court points to gutting Voting Rights Actspeed read States would no longer be required to consider race when drawing congressional maps
-
Shutdown: Are Democrats fighting the right battle?Feature Democrats are holding firm on health insurance subsidies as Trump ramps up the pain by freezing funding and vowing to cut more jobs
-
Bondi stonewalls on Epstein, Comey in Senate face-offSpeed Read Attorney General Pam Bondi denied charges of using the Justice Department in service of Trump’s personal vendettas
-
Why is this government shutdown so consequential?Today's Big Question Federal employee layoffs could be in the thousands
-
Shutdown: Democrats stand firm, at a costFeature With Trump refusing to negotiate, Democrats’ fight over health care could push the government toward a shutdown
-
Democrat wins Arizona seat, aiding Epstein driveSpeed Read Democrat Adelita Grijalva beat Republican businessman Daniel Butierez for the House seat in Arizona
