US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) has suggested that he’s ready to move forward with impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden as evidence of allegedly corrupt dealings by the president and his family grows more revealing each week.
“If you look at all the information we have been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry,” McCarthy said on Sunday in a Fox News interview. “And just so your viewers understand what that means, that provides Congress the apex of legal power to get all the information they need.”
As speaker of the House of Representatives, McCarthy has the power to enable congressional Republicans to launch an impeachment case against Biden. He had been reluctant to do so until last month, when he hinted at the possibility of an impeachment inquiry. Earlier this week, he said such proceedings could begin as soon as September if the Biden administration didn’t turn over the documents that Republican lawmakers have demanded.
In Sunday’s interview with Fox host Maria Bartiromo, McCarthy cited breakthroughs in an investigation of alleged Biden family corruption by congressional Republicans. For instance, he said, bank records show that the Bidens created 20 shell companies while the patriarch was serving as vice president from 2009 to 2017, and they received 16 payments from Romania that flowed to nine members of the family. He also pointed to allegations by an FBI informant who claimed to have bribed then-Vice President Biden.
“When you look at this, it looks like a culture of corruption that’s been happening within the entire Biden family,” McCarthy said. “You’ve got to be able to answer that to the American public. The American public deserves an answer. Who’s lying? What information went on? Who paid, and what foreign governments?”
Asked whether Republicans have enough votes to trigger impeachment proceedings when Congress reconvenes next month, McCarthy said the issue will be discussed when lawmakers return to Washington. “We didn’t not know of all these times the president lied to the American public. Each step we take contradicts what the Bidens had said before. Could you imagine being a sitting vice president, and your family members set up 20 shell companies?”
McCarthy said he’s even heard from Democrats who have become increasingly concerned “because they backed Biden based upon what he told America, and with each turn, we find that is not true.” He added, “To be able to get the answers to these questions, you would need an impeachment inquiry to empower Congress – Republicans and Democrats – to be able to get the answers that the American people deserve to know.”