House of Representatives formalizes impeachment investigation against Biden

It’s official. Or more official. The Republicans have been investigating Hunter Biden for years, in case his business dealings could be a source of embarrassment to the President of the United States, Joe Biden. Since taking control of the House of Representatives last January, the offensive intensified. Then, in March, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ordered the opening of a formal impeachment investigation. Now, the full House has approved the same thing, but giving the investigation greater formality and more legitimacy to issue subpoenas. What remains to be seen is solid evidence that the president has benefited from his family’s business dealings, let alone committed any crime or illegal act.

The floor vote followed a bitter debate between representatives of the two parties. Democrats have accused their rivals of trying to cover up their failure to pass bills since taking over the House majority almost a year ago. While Republicans have continued to air their suspicions against the Bidens. “This whole thing is an extreme political stunt. It has no credibility, no legitimacy, and no integrity. It is a sideshow,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said during a floor debate.

The approved resolution orders “certain committees to continue their ongoing investigations as part of the existing House of Representatives inquiry into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House of Representatives to exercise its Constitutional power to impeach Joseph Biden, President of the United States of America, and for other purposes.” Within it, it also confers on the commissions the power to make subpoenas, requests, interrogations and hearings.

The Republicans closed ranks, while making it clear that it is not yet a question of impeachment proper, but of a preliminary investigation. The resolution was approved with 221 Republican votes in favor and 212 Democratic votes against.

The White House responded immediately to the House vote with a statement in which Joe Biden denounces Republican inaction to approve aid to Ukraine and Israel or take other relevant domestic policy actions. “I wake up every day focused on the issues facing the American people – real issues that impact their lives, and the strength and security of our country and the world. Unfortunately, House Republicans are not joining me,” read the statement.

“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. 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,” added Biden, recalling how Republicans lost weeks over the chaos of McCarthy’s ouster and replacement as speaker and also got tangled up in the expulsion of Congressman George Santos for corruption and lying.

In the morning, before the floor session, Hunter Biden appeared outside the Capitol. He was summoned to testify before the committees seeking a connection between his businesses and his father, but the president’s son has refused to testify behind closed doors and has offered to participate in a public hearing, something that the Republicans reject.

Hunter Biden was blunt: “My father was not financially involved in my business, not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma not my partnership with a Chinese private businessman. Not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist,” he said. “In the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances. But to suggest that is grounds for an impeachment inquiry is beyond the absurd, it is shameless. There is no evidence to support the allegations that my father was financially involved in my business, because it did not happen,” he added.

In September, McCarthy did not dare to bring the investigation to the floor because he believed that moderate Republicans, elected in competitive districts, would turn their backs on him, as they saw no reason for such a step. Now, the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has succeeded in getting his party’s congressmen to close ranks under pressure from Donald Trump.

The former president wants an impeachment against Biden at all costs, partly as revenge for the two impeachment trials he had to undergo as president and partly as a way to counter the trials in which he is indicted, with the elections of November 5, 2025 on the horizon. The Republican strategy is to extend the investigation against Biden until close to the elections.

In a recent statement, the White House called the whole process a “baseless fishing expedition” that Republicans are pushing ahead with “despite the fact that members of their own party have admitted there is no evidence to support impeaching President Biden.”

Congressional investigators have obtained nearly 40,000 pages of bank records through subpoenas and have dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including several high-ranking Justice Department officials currently tasked with looking into Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden is charged with three felonies in Delaware for the illegal purchase and possession of a handgun when he was addicted to drugs and nine others in California for tax fraud, after he derailed a plea deal in which he was willing to admit to misdemeanors that would not have landed him in prison. But what has not been found is any connection of the current president to those alleged crimes by his son.

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