House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday that the House could move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden if his administration doesn’t provide documents Republicans say they want to review.
In a Fox Business interview Tuesday night, McCarthy, R-Calif., was asked whether he has made up his mind whether to launch an impeachment inquiry.
“The thing that holds up whether we'll do an impeachment inquiry: Provide us the documents we’re asking,” he said. “The whole determination here is how the Bidens handle this.”
“If they provide us the documents, there wouldn’t be a need for an impeachment inquiry,” he added. “But if they withhold the documents and fight like they have now to not provide to the American public what they deserve to know, we will move forward with an impeachment inquiry when we come back into session.”
McCarthy said Republicans are seeking bank and credit card statements, but he did not specify from which members of the Biden family.
McCarthy also raised allegations that he mentioned in an interview last month with Fox News host Sean Hannity. He told Hannity that allegations stemming from Republican probes into the business dealings of Biden family members are “rising to the level of impeachment inquiry.”
Among the allegations are that Biden family members received payments from foreign companies and that the Justice Department, according to IRS whistleblowers, has treated the Biden family “differently” in its investigation into Biden’s son Hunter, he said.
“When Biden was running for office, he told the public he has never talked about business. He said his family has never received a dollar from China, which we now prove is not true,” McCarthy alleged in the interview last month.
“If you’re sitting in our position today, we would know none of this if Republicans had not taken the majority,” he continued. “We only followed where the information has taken us. But this is rising to the level of an impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed.”
McCarthy’s office and the House Oversight Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment seeking clarity about which documents McCarthy said Republicans are asking for. The White House also did not provide comment when it was asked about McCarthy’s warning and claims about not having received documents.
The White House and Democrats have criticized McCarthy’s comments and GOP-led probes into Biden and his family. White House spokesperson Ian Sams pushed back at a tweet by McCarthy this month claiming House investigators "have proven President Biden repeatedly lied about his involvement in his family’s foreign business dealings.”
“McCarthy keeps lying about their ‘investigations’ because the truth is their own witnesses testified President Biden wasn’t involved and did nothing wrong, and bank records they subpoenaed show no involvement," Sams tweeted. "Yet they go on wasting time and tax dollars on their wild goose chase.”
Republicans decided in June to forgo an immediate vote on an impeachment resolution led by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., by sending it to the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees amid escalating internal GOP tensions.
The move came after McCarthy urged rank-and-file Republicans at a closed-door meeting to oppose Boebert’s resolution, arguing that such an important issue should go through the committee process, three GOP sources who heard the comments confirmed at the time.
McCarthy and other Republicans had argued that a quick impeachment vote would be “premature” if it took place before Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, conclude their sprawling investigations into Biden, his family and his administration.
Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in May said a whistleblower had informed them that the FBI had a document known as an FD-1023 that included an unverified allegation from a human source who alleged that Biden as vice president was involved in a bribery scheme involving a foreign government. Grassley released a redacted version of the document last month.
In an interview with Fox Business in June, Comer said the Oversight Committee’s investigation and expertise are “centered around bank statement and bank records,” adding that the panel has received “100%” of information it requested through subpoenas.
“Every subpoena that I’ve signed as chairman of the House Oversight Committee over the last five months, we’ve gotten 100% of what we’ve requested,” Comer said. “Whether it’s with the FBI or with banks or with Treasury. We have built up success that will lead to more success, because now what we’re subpoenaing is a lot more challenging.”
Comer, who is leading the investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, said this month his panel plans to subpoena members of the Biden family, including possibly the president.
“This is always going to end with the Bidens coming in front of the committee. We are going to subpoena the family,” Comer said this month in an appearance on Fox Business.
“Obviously, with all the opposition and obstruction we’re getting from the Biden attorneys now, we know that this is going to end up in court when we subpoena the Bidens,” he continued. “So we’re putting together a case, and I think we’ve done that very well.”
Although McCarthy has floated an impeachment inquiry, some politically vulnerable and centrist Republicans are conflicted about whether to launch a formal inquiry, typically the first step before impeachment proceedings, NBC News reported.
