The impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden that was begun by former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and continued by current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will, according to Speaker Johnson, be formalized next week so long as the small GOP majority in the House can be rallied to back the measure.
The vote will be a test of unity for Republicans, particularly after Rep. Santos’ removal, as the majority they hold is only a few seats, so more than a few not backing the measure will block it. However, as the impeachment inquiry was not formally approved by vote when former Speaker McCarthy opened it on Sep. 12, Speaker Johnson is arguing that a vote to formally adopt it is necessary to help it obtain information blocked by the White House.
Speaking on the matter and explaining why he thinks the House needs to go through with attempting a vote on the inquiry, Speaker Johnson said, “The House has no choice if it’s going to follow its constitutional responsibility to formally adopt an impeachment inquiry on the floor so that when the subpoenas are challenged in court, we will be at the apex of our constitutional authority.”
Speaker Johnson also, when speaking to reporters, attempted to sway the moderates in the GOP caucus, explaining that this vote should be treated as a legal decision, not a political referendum on the impeachment inquiry as it gets deeper and deeper into investigating the Biden family. He said, “All the moderates in our conference understand this is not a political decision.”
Continuing, he explained the bare bones of the matter and why politics shouldn’t inform the opinions of the representatives, saying, “This is a legal decision. This is a constitutional decision. And whether someone is for or against impeachment is of no import right now.” He added, “We have to continue our legal responsibility, and that is solely what this vote is about.”
Watch Johnson here:
Recently, the research director of the Government Accountability Institute claimed that the impeachment of Biden is an “open and shut” case because, in his view, the evidence is so damning. He said, ““If they can get Hunter Biden behind closed doors and drill down on two questions; Number one, did you ever talk to your father about your foreign business dealings? We know the answer to that is yes.”
He continued, “Hunter’s not been honest about this, but the second question is did your father ever talk to your business partners while doing foreign policy that affected their business. And the answer to both those questions is yes, and the money proves that things of value were transferred. Now, Joe Biden in his own words has said he withheld the billion or dollars, that’s an official action right there unless they fired the prosecutor, and then the email showed that the Burisma executives wanted Joe Biden to do that. So this is an open and shut case as far as I’m concerned.”
