The Lower House of the United States, with a Republican majority, approved this Wednesday to formalize the impeachment investigation launched by conservatives against the president, Joe Biden.
Biden's reaction was immediate and he has accused House Republicans of attacking him with “lies.” “Instead of doing anything to help improve the lives of Americans, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” he said in a statement after the vote, which obtained 221 votes in favor and 212 against.
These investigations had been opened in September unilaterally by the then president of that chamber, Kevin McCarthy, and the Republicans now hope that their validation by 221 votes in favor and 212 against will facilitate their access to information, documents and testimonies.
“The White House is blocking key testimonies,” said the president of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, James Comer, in the parliamentary debate, who is leading this investigation and described it as “important and necessary.” .
The opposition to Biden
Republicans have in their sights the Biden family's alleged business dealings with the country's “adversaries” such as China, taking advantage of their political ties.
The opposition accuses the Democratic president of having used his influence when he was vice president of the United States in the Government of Barack Obama (2009-2017) to help his son Hunter and other relatives in alleged irregular businesses with those “enemies.”
Comer coordinates the investigations with the representatives of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan, and the Ways and Means Committee, Jason Smith.
During this time, according to the now president of the Lower House, also a Republican Mike Johnson, the committees have concluded that the Biden family received more than 15 million dollars from companies and foreign governments from Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Romania and China between 2014 and 2019. His partners would have received another 9 million.
Hunter Biden had been summoned this Wednesday to testify behind closed doors in this regard, but he failed to comply with his subpoena, claiming that he wants his testimony to be public.
As Comer, who plans to sue him for contempt, later noted, the fact that the son refused to speak today reinforces the need for the chamber to formalize the investigation and for the president and his family to “be held accountable for their corruption.”
“These people do not work for the Americans, but for Donald Trump,” lamented Democratic Congressman Jim McGovern in the debate, for whom the ongoing investigation is a continuation of the “crusade” undertaken by Republicans to reverse the results of the elections. 2020 presidential elections.
The United States Constitution states that the president can be removed from office in an impeachment trial if he committed “high crimes or misdemeanors.”
The future of impeachment
If in the coming months the impeachment investigation that the Republicans have just formalized bears any fruit, the committees will have to draft an accusation, what is known as “articles of impeachment”, which will have to be submitted to a vote again in the Lower House. .
If these articles are approved with only a simple majority, the Senate – where Democrats have a majority – must hold an impeachment trial against the president.
Biden would only be removed from office if two-thirds of that chamber votes in that direction, a scenario impossible to imagine in the current political context.
What there is no doubt is that less than a year before the 2024 presidential elections, an impeachment investigation against Biden will serve as a media electoral weapon for the Republicans.