President Joe Biden dismissed the House Republicans’ impeachment investigation late Wednesday, claiming the investigation was begun because the Republicans wanted to shut down the federal government.
Instead of being concerned about the investigation, Biden said at a Democratic event in Virginia, “I’m focused on the things the American people want me to focus on.”
The president’s remarks were the first since Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced the initiation of an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden, while the Republican House leader is simultaneously battling to find votes to fund the government and avoid a federal shutdown.
“The best I can tell is they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government,” Biden said.
He also mentioned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a close ally of his main opponent in the 2024 election, Donald Trump. “The first day she was elected, the first thing she wanted to do was impeach Biden,” he said.
“Look, I’ve got a job,” Biden told his audience. “I’ve got to deal with the issues that affect the American people every single, solitary day.”
McCarthy’s unexpected decision to open an impeachment investigation on Biden over his son Hunter’s business activities and family finances has won over even the most hesitant Republicans, with some GOP members pressing for speedy action while others expect it to linger into the 2024 election year.
McCarthy started and ended a secret meeting of House Republicans on Wednesday, defending his justification for the investigation requested by former President Trump.
The timing is politically critical for McCarthy, whose job is under threat from Trump’s right-wing backers. He has already indicated potential allegations of abuse of power, corruption, and obstruction for possible impeachment articles.
“There’s a lot of accusations out there you just want the answers to,” McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol.
The White House mobilized to combat what it called the president’s “unprecedented, unfounded claims” about his son, Hunter, and family finances.
House Republicans are attempting to link Biden to his son’s business affairs in order to divert attention away from Trump’s own legal problems.
According to the White House, Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business dealings. So far, Republicans have found no serious proof of impropriety on the part of the elder Biden, who spoke frequently with his son as vice president and did attend a business luncheon with his son’s partners.
In a 14-page memo to news media leaders, the White House urged them to hold Republicans “accountable for the fact that they are lurching toward impeachment over allegations that are not only unfounded but, in virtually all cases, have been actively disproven.”
During a White House event on cancer research earlier in the day, Biden did not react to loud questions regarding impeachment.
Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, branded it a “political stunt.”
Trump, the Republican front-runner for the presidency in 2024, is the only president to have been impeached twice — and acquitted both times — and the first to face criminal charges in four separate indictments, including for attempting to overturn the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden.
Some Republican lawmakers believe that the sooner they go after Biden, the better.
“I hope we can get it through as quickly as possible,” said Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, head of the Oversight Committee, which is overseeing the impeachment investigation.
Later Wednesday, Comer and the other House chairmen involved in the impeachment inquiry crossed the Capitol and spent nearly an hour talking Senate Republicans through the evidence they claimed to have gathered over the previous eight months.
Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, has urged the House against impeachment. And, after declaring his intention not to run for reelection in 2024, Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah told reporters Wednesday afternoon, saying, “I haven’t heard any allegation of something that would rise to the level of a high crime and misdemeanor.”
