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Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Thursday that the House is nearing a decision on whether to move on articles of impeachment against President Biden.
Asked during a press conference if he believes there is enough evidence to move on articles of impeachment against Biden, Johnson said: “I do believe that very soon we are coming to a point of decision on it.”
He later added, “We’re gonna follow the evidence where it leads and we’ll see, and I’m not gonna pre-determine it this morning.”
The newly minted Speaker, who has a constitutional law background, emphasized the importance of due process.
“I have been very consistent, intellectually consistent in this, and persistent that we have to follow due process and we have to follow the law,” he said. “That means following our obligation on the Constitution and doing appropriate investigations in the right way at the right pace so that the evidence comes in and we follow the evidence where it leads. You follow the truth where it leads.”
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), before he was ousted from the top job, directed a trio of House committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry based on the GOP conference’s investigations into the Biden family’s foreign business dealings and the prosecution of the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
McCarthy launched the effort without holding a vote on the House floor — despite earlier saying he would do so — which prompted howls from Democrats.
Johnson sat on one of those panels, the Judiciary Committee, before he assumed the Speakership.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday released its second memo since subpoenaing the personal bank records of Biden family members, including Hunter Biden.
The latest includes a $40,000 check Biden’s brother James and his wife Sarah, labeled as a “loan repayment.”
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The panel suggested the repayment — made in 2017 while Biden was no longer serving as vice president — was aided by James Biden’s foreign business dealings in China, tracking income that flowed through Hunter Biden’s companies before being deposited in one owned by James Biden.
But Democrats argued the money shows nothing more than a loan between family members while Biden was not in office. It’s a dynamic they said it also true for an earlier $200,000 loan highlighted by the committee, something CNN found stemmed from Biden’s account.
“As a private citizen, Joe Biden loaned money to his brother, who repaid 2 months later,” House Oversight Democrats wrote on X on Wednesday.
House GOP Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) highlighted that memo during Thursday’s press conference, arguing that the president “is clearly compromised, and the American people know it.”
“House Republicans will continue to follow the facts to ensure accountability for the American people and deliver legislative results under this new era of leadership with Speaker Mike Johnson,” she added.
The impeachment inquiry into Biden comes after the House twice impeached then-President Trump during his four years in office, which enraged GOP lawmakers. Republicans consistently criticized the effort as a sham and witch hunt, and criticized the process by which Democrats worked.
Johnson on Thursday compared the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry to the Democrat-led effort against Trump.
“Many, you know, Republicans across the country are anxious to get to the endpoint on this, and I think some Democrats want to know how it ends as well. What you’re seeing right now is the deliberate constitutional process that was envisioned by the founders, the framers of the Constitution,” he said. “This is how they envisioned this to go, not the way the Democrats did it, snap impeachments, sham impeachments, and all the rest.”
Rebecca Beitsch contributed.
