Posted on 09/28/23
| News Source: FOX45
Republicans have insisted for months that they have the grounds to launch impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden. On Thursday, they will begin formally making their case to the public and their skeptical colleagues in the Senate.
The chairmen of Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means will hold the opening hearing of their impeachment inquiry by reviewing the constitutional and legal questions surrounding their investigation of Biden and what they say are links to his son Hunter's overseas businesses.
Based on the evidence, Congress has a duty to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden's corruption," Rep. James Comer, the Oversight chairman, said in a statement this week.
Comer added that the committee plans to "present evidence uncovered to date and hear from legal and financial experts about crimes the Bidens may have committed as they brought in millions at the expense of U.S. interests."
It's a high-stakes opening act for Republicans as they begin a process that can lead to the ultimate penalty for a president, punishment for what the Constitution describes as "high crimes and misdemeanors." This is all while they face a resistance in the Senate from Republicans who are worried about the political ramifications of another impeachment — and who say Biden's conviction and removal from office is a near impossibility.
But House Republicans say they are only investigating and have made no final decision on impeaching the president.
The hearing Thursday will not feature witnesses with information about the Bidens or Hunter Biden's business work. Instead, it will be a soft launch of sorts with testimony from outside experts in tax law, criminal investigations and constitutional legal theory.
Democrats, who decry the investigation as a political ploy aimed at hurting Biden and helping Donald Trump as he runs again for president, said they plan to bring Michael Gerhardt, a law professor who has appeared as an expert on two previous impeachment efforts.
In the run-up to the hearing, Republicans were touting a tranche of new documents and bank records that detail wire transfers from a Chinese businessman to Hunter Biden in 2019. Hunter Biden had listed his father's address on the wire transfer form, which Republicans said provided a clear link to the president.