The Republican leader in the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, called on Tuesday for the opening of an investigation to hold Democratic President Joe Biden accountable, a step that will certainly lead to further division among lawmakers at a time when they are discussing approving legislation that would prevent the US government from shutting down.
Many in McCarthy’s party were angry when the House of Representatives, then controlled by Democrats, twice introduced a bill isolation For then-Republican President Donald Trump, in 2019 and 2021, despite his acquittal in the Senate on both occasions. Some lawmakers from the right wing of the Republican Party said they would try to remove McCarthy from leadership of the House of Representatives if he did not move forward with his efforts to remove McCarthy. isolation Against Joe Biden.
“I have instructed our committees in the chamber to open an official investigation into the matter isolation “Against President Joe Biden,” McCarthy told reporters. “We’ll go where the evidence takes us.”
Specifically, Republicans, who now control the House of Representatives, accused Biden of profiting while he was vice president, between 2009 and 2017, from the foreign business ventures of his son Hunter Biden, although they did not provide evidence.
McCarthy said lawmakers on various committees will begin gathering evidence of potential financial misconduct.
A former business partner of the president’s son told a congressional hearing that Hunter Biden sold the “illusion” of gaining power while his father was vice president, according to a transcript released last month. The White House said there was no basis for any investigation.
Democrats have sought to portray Republicans talking about him isolation In an attempt to distract public attention from the legal troubles facing Trump, who faces four separate criminal charges as he runs for his party’s nomination to face Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
Trump is pushing Republicans to try to remove Biden from office. Many far-right Republicans have said they will not vote for must-pass spending bills unless McCarthy gives the green light for an impeachment inquiry.
The US Constitution gives Congress the power to impeach federal officials, including the president, for treason, bribery, and “other high crimes and misdemeanors.” A president can be removed from office if the House approves the articles of impeachment by a simple majority and the Senate votes by a two-thirds majority to convict him after the trial.
Any attempt to remove Biden from office is unlikely to succeed. Even if the Republican-controlled House of Representatives votes to impeach Biden – an uncertain possibility given the narrow 222-212 margin of the vote – he will almost certainly fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Donald Trump is the only US president to have been impeached twice. He was acquitted on both occasions in the Senate, thanks to the votes of his Republican colleagues who prevented the chamber from obtaining the two-thirds majority needed for conviction.
In your first place isolationThe House of Representatives impeached Trump in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after he asked Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son over baseless corruption allegations. The second time, in 2021, he was charged with incitement of insurrection following the attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.
The first challenge was aimed at removing him from office. The second, in which the trial took place after he left office, sought to deprive Trump of assuming the presidency again.
As he has done in numerous investigations into his actions, Trump has called his impeachment a politically motivated witch hunt.
In July, Biden responded to Republican lawmakers who threatened to impeach him.
Maybe Republicans should find something else to criticize me now that inflation is low. Maybe they’ll decide to ask me isolation Because inflation is falling. I don’t know. “I would love to,” Biden said at the time.
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