With the evidence piling up that Joe Biden was part of an influence-peddling scheme while he was serving as vice president, the possibility of an impeachment inquiry is looking as likely as it ever has. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) first signaled that he was warming up to an impeachment inquiry last month.
“We’ve only followed where the information has taken us,” McCarthy told Sean Hannity in July. “This is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed. Because this president has also used something we have not seen since Richard Nixon, used the weaponization of government to benefit his family and deny Congress the ability to have the oversight.”
Of course, not much has happened since then, even though Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) filed articles of impeachment. As you’ve doubtless noticed, there’s been no vote on them yet, and no impeachment inquiry has officially begun.
That could change next month when Congress reconvenes. But according to McCarthy, it depends on what the Biden family does.
“The thing that holds up whether we’ll do an impeachment inquiry, provide us the documents we’re asking. The whole determination here is how the Bidens handle this,” McCarthy explained. “If they provide us the documents, there wouldn’t be a need for an impeachment inquiry, but if they withhold the documents and fight like they have now, to not provide to the American public what they deserve to know, we will move forward with impeachment inquiry when we come back into session.”
At issue here are financial documents that can prove Joe Biden never accepted a $5 million bribe from Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky, as was alleged by a longtime FBI informant and documented in an official FD-1023 form.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have already uncovered substantial evidence of large payments from foreign nationals to members of the Biden family via shell companies, and damning testimony from credible witnesses, including an FBI informant and whistleblowers from inside the government. If Joe Biden never received any bribes, it should be easy for him to prove it.
“Why can’t we get the documents to prove that you’re not being bribed, that you didn’t get foreign money directly in, that you didn’t talk to your son?” McCarthy asked. “But what we found now is that the things that then-Vice President Biden, running for president, told the American public is not true, and he’s now had to change what he said.”
Joe Biden claimed for years that he never spoke with his son about his business dealings. But since then, testimony from Hunter Biden’s former associates has contradicted that, forcing the White House (and Joe Biden himself) to change that story.
Related: Report: Hunter Biden Would Have Gotten Away Scot Free If Not for the IRS Whistleblowers
I wouldn’t count on Biden offering up any proof. For starters, the evidence already suggests that he was involved and did get paid. It is therefore unlikely that he would give up any documentation that would prove exactly what the Republicans have been accusing him of.
In short, if McCarthy is a man of his word, impeachment is coming in September.