1 of 1 US President Joe Biden during a speech in Nantucket on November 26, 2023 Photo: Stephanie Scarbrough/AP US President Joe Biden during a speech in Nantucket on November 26, 2023 Photo: Stephanie Scarbrough/AP
The United States House of Representatives approved this Wednesday (13) the formal investigation that could lead to impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden. The Republicans had already launched an informal investigation against the Democrat, but had not yet found any irregularities.
The Republicancontrolled chamber voted 221212 along party lines to approve the investigation into whether Biden improperly benefited from the business dealings of his 53yearold son, Hunter Biden.
The White House said the investigation was unfounded and politically motivated as Biden prepares for a possible rematch in the 2024 election with his Republican predecessor Donald Trump.
Trump is the first president in US history to be impeached twice and is currently preparing for four criminal trials.
The vote comes three months after Republicans informally began the investigation and is not a mandatory step toward removing a president or other official from office.
In a statement, Biden chided House Republicans for failing to prioritize America's problems and instead seeking to destabilize them.
“House Republicans do not agree with me. Instead of doing anything to improve Americans’ lives, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” Biden said.
The attempt will almost certainly fail to remove Biden from office. Even if the House votes to impeach the president, the Senate must then vote by a twothirds majority to convict him on the charges a nearimpossibility in a chamber where Biden's Democratic colleagues have a 5149 majority.
But the authorization could give Republicans more legal power to force the Biden administration to cooperate and could help combat Democrats' accusations that the allegations are unlawful.
House Republicans contend that Biden and his family benefited from his actions when he was President Barack Obama's vice president from 2009 to 2017, and that they focused on his son's business ventures in Ukraine and China during that time would have.
They found evidence that the younger Biden led customers to believe he could give them access to the vice president's office. However, they presented no evidence that Biden took any official steps to help these companies or that he benefited financially from them.