House Republicans voted Wednesday to formalize an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, intensifying their probe into unproven allegations that the president profited from his son’s foreign business dealings.

The vote is a formality, but it puts the GOP, including vulnerable California members who face competitive reelection contests next year, on the map in support of moves toward ousting Biden. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, egged on by former President Trump and the most far-right members of his caucus, launched the investigation

without a vote

in September.

The investigation has yet to produce evidence that proves the Republican party’s long-standing, unproven claim that Biden profited from his son Hunter’s foreign business dealings.

Speaker McCarthy launches an impeachment inquiry into Biden without a vote in the House of Representatives

The U.S. Constitution does not require the House to vote to launch an impeachment inquiry, legal experts told The Times. Calm,

House Speaker

Mike Johnson

Republicans do

tried to portray formalizing the sample as a way to do that

staff

researchers

allowing them to make toxxx, he said Wednesday

.

Short of declaring war, impeachment is the most serious action Congress can take, Tom McClintock (R-Elk Grove) said in a speech ahead of the vote. We owe it to the country to get to the bottom of these allegations. And that requires the House to objectively invoke its full investigative powers, respect the rights of everyone involved and present all the facts to the American people.

The

221-212

The votes fell along party lines.

: Colorado Representative Ken Buck was the only Republican to join all Democrats in the House of Representatives in opposing the resolution. In a statement, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) blasted the vote, calling it a partisan move that will waste taxpayer money to appease the far right. QUOTE

Ahead of the vote, Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform who is leading the investigation, condemned the probe, calling it a partisan move that will waste taxpayer money to appease the far right.

“After 11 months, no one can tell you what Joe Biden’s alleged crime is, where it happened, what the motive was or who the victims are,” the Maryland Democrat said at a news conference ahead of the vote.

He added: “[Republicans] A mountain of evidence, but all the evidence shows that Joe Biden is not guilty of presidential wrongdoing.”

House Republicans have been eager to impeach Biden since Trump left office in 2021. A day after the presidential inauguration, then-freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) files the first articles of impeachment against Biden. She and other far-right lawmakers and Republican operatives have tried to link the president to his son Hunter’s foreign affairs activities. Although Hunter is under federal indictment for unrelated crimes, House investigators have not yet provided evidence to charge Biden with wrongdoing.

It is unclear when the House investigation into Biden will end and whether it will produce charges that the lower chamber will vote on. If the House of Representatives votes to impeach Biden, the Democratic-controlled Senate will hold a trial, which would require a two-thirds majority to convict. The US Senate has never removed an American president from office.

Republicans in both chambers have expressed deep skepticism about the investigation. That includes the White House, which has worked in overdrive to bash the Republican Party for what administration officials have characterized as a baseless investigation aimed at appeasing Trump, who was twice impeached by Democrats in the House of Representatives.

QUOTE from WH Press Shop

In 2019, the Democratic-controlled House impeached Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress

impeachment

investigation into his threats to withhold military aid from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky unless Zelensky launched an investigation into Biden, then a candidate for president. The House of Representatives impeached Trump again in 2021 for inciting the January 6 insurrection. (The Senate twice declined to convict.)

Wednesday’s vote is likely to help Republicans in deep-red districts fend off challenges from far-right candidates by helping them prove their loyalty to Trump. The vote is also likely to help Democratic challengers in competitive districts eager to win over moderates by tying incumbent Republican lawmakers to the former president, who is unpopular among swing voters.

The vote could come back to haunt swing district Republicans

candidates

. A majority of voters in competitive districts view the survey as unfounded, according to an early December survey commissioned by Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic nonprofit, and conducted by Public Policy Polling. The survey found that 52% of voters saw the impeachment inquiry as designed to do political damage to Biden. Most Trump voters (85%) said the investigation was more about finding the truth. Fifty-six percent of people who declined to support either presidential candidate in 2020 characterized the survey as a more serious effort to explore important issues.

According to Matthew Herdman, a spokesman for the nonprofit, the Congressional Integrity Project recently launched a “seven-figure campaign” in California and other competitive districts targeting Republicans who supported formalizing the investigation. The group purchased digital ads and mobile billboards that targeted vulnerable Republicans, including California representatives. John Duarte of Modesto, Mike Garcia of Santa Clarita, Young Kim of Anaheim Hills, Michelle Steel of Seal Beach and David Valadao of Hanford. Their races are rated as competitive by Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan outfit that focuses on congressional races.

On Monday, the Congressional Integrity Project paid for a mobile ad that read “Call [Valadao]. Tell him “enough is enough” to drive through the Valadao field office in Bakersfield.

Digital ads pursuing candidates like Garcia note that Republicans in the House of Representatives have struggled to “pass a budget or urgently need help in Ukraine,” but have instead focused on formalizing a “ bogus impeachment inquiry against President Biden without a shred of evidence that the president did so. is there something wrong.”

“Mike Garcia pledged to focus on real priorities, not political stunts,” the ad said.

As part of the probe into Biden family members’ business dealings, House investigators have issued a subpoena

H

under Biden last month to testify in a private statement Wednesday morning. Before the statement, the younger Biden’s lawyers repeatedly tried to keep the questioning in public, arguing that an open process would prevent selective leaks of his comments.

Instead of appearing for the scheduled questioning, Hunter defied the subpoena and instead held a news conference outside the Capitol, reiterating his desire for a public hearing and attacking Republicans for “distortions, manipulated evidence and lies.”

“Let me say as clearly as possible: my father was not financially involved in my company, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma, not in my partnership with a private Chinese businessman, not in my investments at home or abroad, and certainly not as an artist,” Biden told reporters as he was flanked by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) and his attorney, Abbe Lowell.

“In the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances. But to suggest that this is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond absurd. It is shameless. There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved involved me.” business, because it didn’t happen.”

Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Delaware. In the California case, his lawyers have emphasized that their client long ago paid his tax debts and that his mishandled financial affairs coincided with the depths of his drug and alcohol addiction. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles), a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, blasted Republicans for escalating the investigation. “They can start an impeachment inquiry, but that doesn’t mean they should because the evidence isn’t there,” Gomez said at a news conference ahead of the vote. “Every time they do that, the foundation of our democracy is eroded. And the public and the people lose their trust.”