Politics

US House of Representatives formalises impeachment inquiry against Biden

Washington, 13 December (EFE). – The US House of Representatives, with a Republican majority, agreed on Wednesday to formalise the impeachment inquiry launched by the Republicans against President Joe Biden.

The investigation was opened unilaterally in September by the then speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, and Republicans are now hoping that the 221 to 212 confirmation vote will give them easier access to information, documents and testimony.

James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, which is leading the investigation and called it “important and necessary” complaint that the White House is blocking key testimony .

Republican Representative Byron Donalds, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told CNN that the evidence to justify impeaching President Joe Biden will come during the impeachment inquiry.

Meanwhile, President Joe Biden called the impeachment inquiry a “baseless political stunt” and accused House Republicans of attacking him with “lies”.

“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. 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 facts,” the president said in a statement.

Republicans are targeting the Biden family’s alleged business dealings with the country’s “adversaries”, such as China, for which they supposedly used political connections.

The opposition accuses the Democratic president of using his influence as vice-president of the United States in the administration of Barack Obama (2009-2017) to help his son Hunter and other relatives in allegedly irregular deals with these “enemies”.

Comer is coordinating the investigation with Jim Jordan of the Judiciary Committee and Jason Smith of the Ways and Means Committee.

According to Mike Johnson, the current president of the House of Representatives, the committees have concluded that the Biden family and their associates received millions of dollars from companies and foreign governments from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania and China between 2014 and 2019.

Hunter Biden was subpoenaed to testify behind closed doors on Wednesday, but he did not comply, claiming that he wanted his testimony to be public.

Comer, plans to hold him in contempt, and later pointed out, the fact that the son refused to speak on Wednesday reinforces the need for the House to formalise the investigation and hold the president and his family “accountable.”

Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern intervened in the debate, for whom the ongoing investigation is a continuation of the Republicans’ “crusade” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“We are here for one reason and one reason alone… Donald Trump demanded that Republicans impeach, so they are going to impeach. These guys, these Republicans, they don’t work for you, the American people. They work for Donald Trump,” he said.

The US Constitution states that the president can be removed from office by impeachment for “high crimes and misdemeanours”.

When the time comes, the House of Representatives must vote on whether to bring charges against the sitting president, but the power to remove the country’s president then falls to the Senate, which is currently controlled by the Democrats. EFE

mgr/mcd

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