The US House of Representatives will vote next week on formally authorizing an investigation aimed at impeaching President Democrat Joe Biden, its leader, Republican Mike Johnson, announced on Tuesday.
The president of the lower house of Congress justified the Republicans’ decision with the White House’s refusal to grant their requests for information.
Johnson and the rest of Republican leaders have been considering in recent weeks whether to move forward with a formal vote on their months-long investigation into the president, which has focused on the business relationships of other members of his family.
So far, investigations have not found any evidence of wrongdoing on Biden’s part.
While some Republicans have reservations about the investigation, Johnson said the House should exercise its authority in full confrontation with the White House on requests for information related to the president and his son Hunter Biden.
“If the House of Representatives is to fulfill its constitutional responsibility, the House has no choice but to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry,” Johnson told reporters.
The White House has repeatedly dismissed the Republican investigation as a “baseless exercise” intended to appease far-right Republican members of Congress.
Republicans have long deemed the investigation unnecessary, but began to reconsider when White House lawyers used the lack of formal authorization from the House of Representatives to argue that the entire investigation lacked “constitutional legitimacy.”
But a vote in the House of Representatives, the process of which enters the presidential election cycle, represents a key test for Republican unity given their slim majority, 221 to 213 Democrats.
For their part, Democrats in the House of Representatives have remained united in their opposition to the impeachment trial, calling it a sham used by Republicans to distract from Donald Trump’s legal troubles.
To swing the vote in favor of the Republicans, almost all of their elected representatives must vote in favor, making public their support for a process that could lead to the maximum political penalty for a president, removal from office, as the Constitution determines. describes it as “serious crimes and misdemeanors.”
For some moderate Republicans, especially those elected in districts where Biden won the 2020 presidential election, it’s a vote that could carry significant political risks.
Today, Johnson dismissed concerns about his ability to bring together his most vulnerable members in the bid to move forward with the investigation.
He emphasized, by the way, that the House will not vote to impeach Biden, but to continue the investigation.
“All the moderates on our side understand that this is not a political decision,” he said. “This is a legal decision. This is a constitutional decision. And whether someone is for or against removal does not matter now.”
Source: DN
