The GOP speaker of the Republican-led House of Representatives has given a go-ahead for an impeachment investigation into US President Joe Biden.
Kevin McCarthy, giving in to pressure from his party’s hard right, gave the go-ahead on Tuesday, claiming that the Democratic president had lied to the US public about his son’s “corrupt” business dealings.
“House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations about President Biden’s conduct,” McCarthy said. “Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption.”
McCarthy said the “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption” against the president “warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.”
“I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry,” he announced, pointing out the investigation was centered on the president’s son Hunter’s foreign business dealings.
However, according to the AP‘s congressional reporter, till now not one US president has ever been formally removed from office through the impeachment process launched by the House.
The impeachment procedure, which used to be a rarity in itself, has now become commonplace in US politics.
“While the House of Representatives yields the power to impeach an official, only the Senate has the power to convict and remove that official from office,” the AP noted, adding that former US President Donald Trump was impeached twice by the House during his presidency, and both times he was acquitted by the Senate.
In the meantime, Republicans have been targeting the Democratic president through the foreign business dealings of Biden’s son Hunter while his father was vice president under Barack Obama for years.
Until now, there has been no credible evidence to prove that the elder Biden was complicit in any of his son’s allegedly illegal business dealings in a foreign country, namely, Ukraine.
In the meantime, McCarthy has been under pressure for months from the right wing of the Republican party, who have remained loyalists to Trump, to avenge him by opening an impeachment inquiry into 80-year-old Biden.
Republicans, who now narrowly control the House, have claimed Biden was profiting from his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings while he served as vice president from 2009 to 2017, though they have not offered proof.
“House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they’ve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing,” Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Extreme politics at its worst,” Sams noted.
Biden previously had mocked Republicans over a possible impeachment.
Democratic lawmakers have denounced the Republicans’ move as an attempt to take revenge against Biden, a Democrat, for the double impeachment of
Trump by the House during Trump’s presidency from January 2017 to January 2021.
Many Republicans were infuriated when the House, then controlled by Democrats, impeached Trump in 2019 and 2021.
Some of the Republicans had threatened to try to remove McCarthy as the leader of the House if he did not go ahead with the impeachment procedure against Biden.
