Under pressure from the more conservative faction within the Republican Party, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who belongs to the Republican Party, authorized an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Tuesday, September 12.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, bowing to pressure from his party’s hard right, gave the go-ahead on Tuesday for an impeachment investigation into US President Joe Biden.
The business dealings in Ukraine and China by Biden’s 53-year-old son Hunter while his father was vice president under Barack Obama have been a constant target of Republicans.
Hunter Biden, a recovering drug addict, is currently under investigation by a Justice Department special counsel for possible tax evasion and is expected to be charged by the end of this month on a firearms violation.
However, he has not been charged with crimes related to his foreign business dealings and no credible evidence has emerged so far that the president was involved in anything illegal.
McCarthy has been under pressure from the right-wing of the party, loyal to Donald Trump, for months to open an impeachment inquiry into the 80-year-old Biden.
The White House immediately condemned the move, calling it “extreme politics at its worst.”
Under the US Constitution, a president can be impeached for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
McCarthy, who was forced to compromise with the far-right of the party to win his powerful speaker’s post, said the “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption” against Biden “warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives.”
Democratic lawmakers have denounced the move as a purely partisan exercise intended to exact revenge for the double impeachment by the then Democratic-controlled House of former Republican president Trump.
A number of moderate Republican members of the House and the Senate have also expressed skepticism about launching an impeachment investigation into Biden.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
