McCarthy instructs US House panel to launch Biden impeachment inquiry

Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said he was directing a House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family's business dealings.

McCarthy said on Tuesday the House investigation has found a "culture of corruption" around the Biden family.

The announcement from the Republican leader comes as he faces mounting pressure from his right flank to take action against Biden.

McCarthy is planning to convene lawmakers behind closed doors multiple times this week, including for a meeting to discuss the Biden impeachment. The speaker also is struggling to pass legislation needed to avoid a federal government shutdown at the end of the month.

The Republican leader is once again at a political crossroads — trying to keep his most conservative lawmakers satisfied and prevent his own ouster. It's a familiar political bind for McCarthy, who is juggling the impeachment inquiry and the government shutdown threat with no clear end game.

Biden's White House has dismissed the impeachment push as politically motivated.

"Speaker McCarthy shouldn't cave to the extreme, far-right members who are threatening to shut down the government unless they get a baseless, evidence-free impeachment of President Biden. The consequences for the American people are too serious," White House spokesperson Ian Sams said.

The impeachment push comes as Trump, who was twice impeached by the House but acquitted by the Senate, faces more serious charges in court. Trump has been indicted four times this year, including for trying to overturn the 2020 election Biden won.

"This is a transparent effort to boost Donald Trump’s campaign by establishing a false moral equivalency between Trump — the four time-indicted former president," said Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

House Republicans are probing the business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter Biden, but so far have not produced hard evidence linking the two. They have shown a few instances largely during the time the elder Biden was Barack Obama's vice president when he spoke by phone with his son and stopped by dinners his son was hosting with business partners.

Digging deeper

Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman leading the Oversight Committee, is digging deeper into the Biden family finances and is expected to seek banking records for Hunter Biden as the panel tries to follow the flow of money.

On Tuesday, Comer demanded the State Department produce documents about the work Biden did as vice president during the Obama administration to clean up corruption in Ukraine. Comer wants to understand the State Department's views of former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, whom Biden and many Western allies wanted removed from office because of allegations of corruption.

The White House has insisted Biden was not involved in his son’s business dealings. And Democrats on the Over sight Committee are stepping up to fight against what they view as unfounded claims against Biden ahead of the 2024 election, as the president seeks reelection.

This comes as federal government funding is set to run out on Sept. 30, which is the end of the federal fiscal year, and Congress must pass new funding bills or risk a shutdown and the interruption of government services.

Conservatives who power McCarty's majority want to slash spending, and the hard right is unwilling to approve spending levels the speaker negotiated with Biden earlier this year.

McCarthy is trying to float a 30-day stopgap measure to keep government running to Nov. 1, but conservatives are balking at what's called a continuing resolution, or CR, as they pursue cuts.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said late Monday exiting McCarthy's office she has “red lines" against any new money being spent for Covid-19 vaccines or mandates or Russia's war in Ukraine.

Another Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, a top Trump ally, is warning that McCarthy could face blowback from conservatives if he does not push hard for spending cuts.

At the start of the year, Gaetz and other Republicans secured agreements from McCarthy as he struggled to win their votes to become House speaker.

Under the House rules, McCarthy's opponents are able to call a vote at any time to try to oust the speaker from office.