President Joe Biden blasted Republicans in Congress over their impeachment plans, calling them “baseless.”
The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to formalize the impeachment inquiry against Biden and not a single Republican voted against the motion. GOP members say the president profited from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings during his time as vice president from 2009 to 2017 and during the same period.
In a statement from the White House, Biden said: “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 the facts.”
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He accused Republicans of ignoring important issues in the House, focusing on party infighting and what the president sees as vendettas against him.
“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Biden said. “But after wasting weeks trying to find a new speaker of the House and having to fire their own members, Republicans in Congress are leaving for a month doing nothing to address these pressing challenges.”
There is currently no evidence of any wrongdoing by Biden, but Republicans have argued that they would allow the White House to subpoena documents and testimony as part of the investigation. About 40,000 pages of bank records have already been subpoenaed, along with hours of testimony from witnesses, including members of the judiciary.
Formalizing the proceedings would mean the trial would drag on to 2024, creating a headache for the Biden campaign as the current president is up for re-election next year.
Impeachment is clearly a possibility, with up to three GOP-run committees deciding whether to move forward. A vote later goes to the House, which has a smaller Republican majority.
If it tries to press ahead, the GOP will lose just three votes. Impeachment, a rule that has affected only three presidents before, can lead to their removal, but in this case it must go to the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Some Republicans expressed skepticism over the investigation and Colorado Republican Ken Buck told CNN over the weekend that “this is no way to run a Congress.” He added: “This is not the way to run the House. We should not engage in vindictive politics, vindictive accusations.”
Despite this, Buck voted in favor of legalizing the proceedings, along with Nebraska Representative Don Bacon.
Daniel Jensen, Bacon’s director of communications, said earlier Newsweek: “Currently, there is no impeachment vote. Only an investigation. He is voting for an investigation because the administration has been stonewalling it for the last two weeks, saying that a formal impeachment inquiry has not been voted on.”
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
