Johnson argues House 'has duty' to hold vote on Biden impeachment inquiry

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Saturday boosted the House GOP's efforts to hold a vote on an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, saying Congress “has a duty” to bring the issue to the floor.

“The evidence is so clear you cannot look away,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox & Friends Weekend. “The Constitution requires the House to follow the truth where it leads. We have a duty to do this. We cannot stop the process.”

House Republicans have alleged that Biden and his family accepted money from foreign interests in suspicious business deals. While none of the evidence presented by a House Oversight Committee investigation so far has implicated the president, Johnson and others are pushing for an impeachment inquiry.

The current investigation, led by Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), has come under fire from Democrats who have marked it a political effort to hurt Biden’s reelection chances in 2024.

Johnson has repeatedly backed the effort, pledging to support the committee’s investigations into the Biden family.

“At this stage, our impeachment inquiry has already shown the corrupt conduct of the President’s family, and that he and White House officials have repeatedly lied about his knowledge and involvement in his family’s business activities,” Johnson said last month.

“Now, the appropriate step is to place key witnesses under oath and question them under the penalty of perjury, to fill gaps in the record,” he added.

Hunter Biden, the president’s son, said he is willing to testify before the committee, but only in a public setting — a demand which has divided Republicans and angered Comer.

“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else," Comer said this week. "That won’t stand with House Republicans."

The Biden investigation took a back seat to government funding debates and the process of electing a new House Speaker in recent months, but Johnson said the GOP is committed to pursuing a full inquiry.

The House GOP is considering a vote on an impeachment inquiry in the next two weeks, Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told reporters Friday.