The impeachment inquiry was given the green light last month by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he moved to appease far-right allies of Trump.
But this move proved futile,as some extremists in the party have continued to threaten a rebellion unless McCarthy gives in to their demands for deeper spending cuts – even as a possible government shutdown looms on Sunday.
Unless a funding deal is reached by McCarthy’s Republicans,non-essential services would cease:2 million federal workers and 2 million active-duty military troops would lose pay,households may not receive some federal benefits and federal customer service would be delayed.
Republican Kevin McCarthy is struggling to satisfy a right flank of his own party to keep funding government services.Credit:AP
“We’re 62 hours away from shutting down the government of the United States of America and Republicans are launching an impeachment drive based on a long-debunked and discredited lie,” Democrat committee member Jamie Raskin said.
An impeachment inquiry is essentially the first step towards bringing articles of impeachment against Biden by strengthening the House’s power to obtain more documents and testimony.
It would be another step altogether to remove Biden from office — this would require the House to approve articles of impeachment by a simple majority,followed by an impeachment trial and a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to convict.
Republican congressman James Comer.Credit:AP
“This hearing wasn’t supposed to be about fireworks and bells and whistles,” chairman James Comer said after the first six hours of testimony failed to produce the explosive evidence Republicans have long promised. “My mission is to follow the money.”
The rocky start was seized on by the Biden 2024 election campaign,whichshared a video of Turley’s comment to its social channels while the president,during an address in Arizona,issued fresh warnings about Trump’s Make American Great Again movement and the threat to democracy.
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“There’s no question that today’s Republican Party is driven and intimidated by MAGA Republican extremists,” Biden said. “Their extreme agenda,if carried out,would fundamentally alter the institutions of American democracy as we know it.”
However,Republican committee members said their investigation was required,citing evidence they had dredged up so far. This includes bank records allegedly showing the Biden family and their business associates received $US20 million ($31 million) in payments from foreign actors in countries such as Russia,China,Ukraine,and Romania,including payments during Biden’s time as vice president (although none of the money received by Hunter Biden has been linked to his father).
Republicans also point to about 150 Treasury Department transactions involving the Biden family and other business associates that were flagged as suspicious activity by US banks (although this has not yet amounted to proven criminal activity).
And they also cite an FBI whistleblower’s claim that Biden and his son accepted a bribe from an executive at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma whose board included Hunter,in exchange for Biden advocating to oust then-Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin,who was purportedly investigating Burisma. (This claim has not been verified by the FBI and the US was also part of an international coalition pushing for Shokin’s dismissal due to concerns he was not investigation corruption cases as was his remit.)
Other witnesses at the hearing included former assistant attorney-general Eileen O’Connor and professor of jurisprudence at UNC Michael J. Gerhardt. All four witnesses testified they were not “fact witnesses” with any first-hand evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
Context
Accusations of partisanship are frequent during House investigations. However,escalating questions about Biden family corruption into an impeachment inquiry follow a long Republican strategy of politicised probes used to shape the narrative around a candidate or sitting president.
In 2015 then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton faced 11 hours of questioning by the Republican-led House Select Committee on Benghazi,which yielded nothing of note. The committee was investigating the circumstances of a 2012 attack on a consulate in Libya that resulted in the deaths of US diplomats.
Democratic Bill Clinton and spouse Hillary were dogged by investigations into real estate transactions and personal relationships. Bill Clinton was eventually impeached by the House in 1998 for perjury and obstruction of justice. It was Clinton’s defence testimony that led to the charges. The Senate did not convict Bill Clinton.