US House Republicans to hold first impeachment hearing against President Biden next week

United States House Republicans plan to hold the first hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden next week, said a spokesperson for the GOP-led panel, on Tuesday (September 19).

This comes a week after House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he is directing a House committee to open an impeachment inquiry into the Democratic president over his family’s business dealings.

When will the hearing take place?

The hearing which will reportedly take place on September 28, is set to “focus on constitutional and legal questions surrounding the President’s involvement in corruption and abuse of public office,” said a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee, as quoted by the New York Post.

“The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the evidence and money trail to provide the transparency and accountability that Americans demand from their government,” the statement added.

Oversight Chair James Comer, ahead of the hearing, said that he plans to subpoena the bank records of the US president'sson Hunter Biden and his brother James Biden. “We’ll be issuing the details hopefully by the end of the day or first thing in the morning,” said Comer.

What is the impeachment inquiry about?

McCarthy said last Tuesday (Sep 12) that the House Oversight Committee’s investigation so far has found a “culture of corruption” around the Biden family, in reference to the probe sought by Republicans into dealings of the incumbent president’s son, Hunter.

He also alleged that the Democratic president had lied to the American people about his son’s foreign business dealings when he was serving as the vice president under Barack Obama. The issue has also been a constant target for the GOP.

Republicans, who now narrowly control the House, have repeatedly accused Biden of profiting from his son’s foreign business ventures while he served as vice president, but have not reportedly provided any substantial evidence for their claim.

When asked if the hearing would reveal new evidence, Comer, a Republican from the US state of Kentucky said, “I think that some of you need to have a refresher course on the existing evidence, so we’ll probably rehash some of that if for no other purpose (than) to help educate the Washington, D.C., press corps,” in an apparent jibe at the media, as quoted by The Hill.

The inquiry also comes ahead of the 2024 presidential elections. Notably, theHouse, then controlled by Democrats, impeached former US president and now Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in 2019 and 2021.

While he was acquitted both times after the impeachment resolution failed to gain a majority in the Senate, it was also previously reported that some hardline Republicans had threatened to remove McCarthy as the speaker of the House if he did not back impeachment efforts against Biden.

(With inputs from agencies)

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