US President Joe Biden.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
Washington: The House voted Wednesday to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, pushing forward with a yearlong Republican investigation that has failed to produce evidence of anything approaching high crimes or misdemeanors.
Republicans said the vote was needed to give them full authority to continue carrying out their investigation amid anticipated legal challenges from the White House. Democrats have denounced the inquiry as a fishing expedition and a political stunt.
GOP leaders refrained for months from calling a vote to open an impeachment inquiry, given the reservations of mainstream Republicans, many of them from politically competitive districts, about moving forward without proof that Biden had done anything wrong. Instead, Kevin McCarthy, the speaker at the time, unilaterally announced one in September as he was facing pressure from the far right to deliver on its priorities.
But Wednesday’s vote underscored how the political ground has shifted. The 221-212 vote was along party lines, with all Republicans voting to approve the inquiry and all Democrats opposed.
“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Biden said of Republicans in a statement not long after. “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.”
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., chair of the Rules Committee, portrayed the vote as a largely procedural step to shore up the House’s investigatory powers.
“Since September, the House has been engaged in an impeachment inquiry, examining whether sufficient grounds exist for the House to exercise constitutional power to impeach the president of the United States,” Cole said. “Today’s resolution simply formalizes that inquiry.”
But Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said there was nothing but rank politics at play. “We are here for one reason and one reason alone: Donald Trump demanded that Republicans impeach, so they are going to impeach,” McGovern said.
The impeachment inquiry resolution does not accuse Biden of any wrongdoing. It authorizes three Republican-led panels to continue their investigations and petition a court for grand jury materials; authorizes subpoenas and retroactively approves many that have already been issued; and allows for the hiring of outside counsel to help with the inquiry.