WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — At the request of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, House Republicans will lead an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
“House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct,” McCarthy said during a news conference Tuesday.
McCarthy claimed that Biden has lied to the American public about his family’s business dealings, and formally announced he is green-lighting an official impeachment inquiry into Biden.
“I do not make this decision lightly. Regardless of your political party or who you voted for, these facts should concern all Americans,” McCarthy said.
House Oversight Chairman Jim Comer, R-Ky., will lead the investigation with assistance from Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith.
A White House spokesperson responded to the announcement on social media, asking if someone could ask McCarthy why he believed an impeachment inquiry was the “next logical step,” especially after House GOP investigations have not turned up any evidence of wrongdoing.
McCarthy has been tiptoeing through a political minefield as he weighed whether to open an official impeachment inquiry into the president.
Former President Donald Trump, with whom McCarthy has kept a good relationship, has also exerted public pressure to pursue impeachment without a long inquiry. So have voters in the GOP base, Republicans say.
But moderate members of McCarthy’s conference questioned whether there was enough evidence to launch an inquiry, and the chance that any impeachment effort could backfire politically. Plus, the speaker can only afford to lose a handful of GOP votes on a resolution to open an inquiry, assuming all Democrats oppose the effort.
One GOP lawmaker — Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — said she will not fund the government unless a Biden impeachment inquiry is opened.
“McCarthy is being told by Marjorie Taylor Greene to do impeachment, or else she’ll shut down the government. Opening impeachment despite zero evidence of wrongdoing by POTUS is simply red meat for the extreme rightwing so they can keep baselessly attacking him,” White House spokesperson Ian Sams said.
McCarthy has repeatedly said that he will not pursue impeachment for “political purposes,” instead arguing that it is a “natural step forward” following a stream of information released by House GOP investigators over the summer about the Biden family’s foreign business dealings.
As talk of impeachment ramps up, McCarthy is separately wrangling conservatives in his conference demanding further spending cuts to support a stopgap funding bill ahead of a Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.
McCarthy argued that avoiding a government shutdown is critical to ensuring GOP investigations of Biden move forward.
“If we shut down, all the government shuts it down, investigation and everything else,” McCarthy said.
But if McCarthy hopes to win over the GOP members giving him grief about spending by pushing an impeachment inquiry, he could have his work cut out for him.
The Hill contributed to this report.