Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy finally bent toward what the MAGA contingent of his party wants on Tuesday, when he announced the House was beginning an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. During his remarks on the inquiry and why it is being launched, Speaker McCarthy encouraged the president to “fully comply” with the demands of House Republicans involved in the inquiry.
As background, many on the right have long been pushing for Republicans to start treating Biden like Democrats treated Trump, namely by impeaching him. Given the Hunter Biden laptop and other seeming evidence of fou-play among members of the Biden Family, such a move seemed like no brainers to MAGA Republicans and like-minded individuals.
Speaker McCarthy, however, had resisted those calls and others like them until now, when he finally decided to move forward with the strategy and begin an impeachment inquiry into the president, a move which he announced on the morning of September 12.
During his remarks, Speaker McCarthy urged Biden to comply completely with the demands of those involved in the inquiry, saying, “I would encourage the president and his team to fully cooperate with this investigation in the interest of transparency. We are committed to getting the answers for the American public, nothing more, nothing less.”
McCarthy also justified the inquiry, saying, “Eyewitnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions. Dinners resulted in cars and millions of dollars into his son and his son’s business partners.”
Continuing, he noted, “Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of a culture of corruption. These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption. They warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.”
Then, giving tidbits on what the path forward would look like, he said, “That’s why today, I am directing our house committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. This logical next step will give our committees the full power to gather all the facts and answers for the American public. It’s exactly what we want to know: the answers.”
Speaker McCarthy posted a video of his announcement on X (formerly Twitter), captioning it, “I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Over the past several months, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct—a culture of corruption.“
Predictably, the Biden Administration was less than pleased with the news and Ian Sams, its spokesman for Oversight and Investigations, said, “House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they’ve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing His own GOP members have said so He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flip flopped because he doesn’t have support Extreme politics at its worst.”
I am directing our House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Over the past several months, House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct—a culture of corruption. https://t.co/3uoDlUB3Sy
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) September 12, 2023
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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