众议院议长、加利福尼亚州共和党人凯文·麦卡锡已经开始提出对总统乔·拜登进行弹劾调查的可能性，随着共和党人加大对总统及其家人不当行为的指控，这一事态突然升级。
在一次露面中周一晚上在福克斯新闻频道麦卡锡依靠两名国税局举报者的证词和一份包含未经证实的腐败指控的联邦调查局文件，暗示拜登利用他在政府的职业生涯来丰富和保护他的家人——共和党人没有提供确切的证据，白宫也大声否认这一说法。
“当拜登总统竞选公职时，他告诉美国公众，他从来没有谈论过商业，他说他的家庭从来没有从中国收到过一块钱，我们现在证明这不是真的。我们现在有一些最可信的告密者，这些10年的国税局代理人站出来，说拜登家族受到了不同的对待，”麦卡锡告诉福克斯新闻频道主持人肖恩·哈尼蒂。
“我们只是跟随信息带我们去的地方。但是汉尼提，这正在上升到弹劾调查的水平，这为国会提供了最强的权力来获得所需的其余知识和信息。因为这位总统还使用了自理查德·尼克松以来我们从未见过的东西，利用政府的武器化来造福他的家庭，并否认国会有监督的能力。”
2023年7月19日，众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡在美国国会大厦雕像大厅的新闻发布会上与记者交谈
德鲁·安格雷尔/盖蒂图片社
白宫周一晚上进行了反击，指责国会共和党人在重要的政策辩论中提升党派调查。
“这不是关注美国人希望我们解决的真正问题，如继续降低通胀或创造就业机会，而是@HouseGOP想要优先考虑的问题，”发微博白宫发言人伊恩·萨姆斯。“他们不顾事实，追逐@POTUS的渴望似乎是无止境的。”
当记者周二追问他的言论时，麦卡锡加倍努力。
他说:“当更多的问题继续被揭开时，它会上升到弹劾调查的层面，在这个层面上，国会将有权得到所有这些答案。”。
麦卡锡的评论标志着共和党对白宫审查的鼓声渐起。
这一升级发生在爱荷华州共和党参议员查克·格拉斯利和众议院监督委员会主席肯塔基州共和党参议员詹姆斯·卡莫之后不久。公布了联邦调查局的文件，其中包括未经证实的关于拜登之子亨特·拜登在乌克兰为能源公司Burisma工作时涉嫌腐败的指控。
共和党人还指责拜登在商业交易中与亨特合作，尽管白宫一再反驳。
国会共和党人还不断指控民主党人正在通过对前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)离职后处理机密信息的行为以及推翻2020年选举结果的努力展开调查，将政府“武器化”。
杰克·史密斯作为特别顾问领导这些调查，这一职位旨在最大限度地独立于司法部。
尽管如此，麦卡锡的评论无疑是他在拜登之后走得最远的。
这位发言人一直是来自立法者的压力运动的焦点，如R-Ga众议员Marjorie Taylor Greene。自从拜登上任以来，他们一直在寻求将他赶下台。然而，直到周一，麦卡锡一直敦促他的右翼保持克制。
“我不知道我们现在还需要什么，因为我们已经让他们推荐了。我们已经在进行调查了，”麦卡锡说上个月说.
议长迄今为止已经满足了他的会议，表示支持对其他政府人物进行可能的弹劾调查，包括国土安全部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯，尽管他周一的评论表明，可能会对煽动者做出另一次让步。
“我相信我们会一路跟进到底，这将上升到弹劾调查，宪法告诉我们这样做，我们必须得到这些问题的答案，”他告诉汉尼提。
虽然弹劾努力将标志着众议院一些强硬派的胜利，但它可能会面临共和党温和派的反对，特别是代表拜登在2020年赢得的地区的18名共和党人，他们将在去年竞选连任。
“弹劾不应该是无足轻重的事情，也不应该以这种方式处理，”18名共和党人之一的共和党众议员唐·培根(Don Bacon)上个月告诉记者，当时共和党议员讨论了弹劾拜登的特许决议。
McCarthy, in escalation, floats Biden impeachment inquiry
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has begun floating the possibility of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, a sudden escalation as Republicans ramp up allegations of wrongdoing by the president and his family.
During an appearanceon Fox News Monday night, McCarthy leaned on testimony from two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers and an FBI document containing unverified allegations of corruption to suggest that Biden has used his career in government to enrich and protect his family -- a claim for which Republicans have provided no definitive evidence and the White House vociferously denies.
"When President Biden was running for office, he told the American public that he's never talked about business, he said his family has never received a dollar from China, which we now proved is not true. We now have some of the most credible whistleblowers, these 10-year IRS agents who have come forward, said the Biden family has been treated differently," McCarthy told Fox News host Sean Hannity.
"We've only followed where the information has taken us. But Hannity, 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."
The White House fired back Monday night, accusing congressional Republicans of elevating partisan probes over important policy debates.
"Instead of focusing on the real issues Americans want us to address like continuing to lower inflation or create jobs, this is what the @HouseGOP wants to prioritize,"tweetedWhite House spokesperson Ian Sams. "Their eagerness to go after @POTUS regardless of the truth is seemingly bottomless."
When pressed on his remarks by reporters Tuesday, McCarthy doubled down.
"When more of this continues to unravel, it rises to the level of impeachment inquiry, where you would have the Congress to have the power to get to all these answers," he said.
McCarthy's comments mark a crescendo of a drumbeat of Republican scrutiny into the White House.
The escalation comes shortly after Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., published the FBI document that included unverified allegations of corruption surrounding the work of Biden's son Hunter Biden in Ukraine for energy company Burisma.
Republicans have also accused Biden of working with Hunter in his business dealings, despite repeated White House rebuttals.
Congressional Republicans are also launching ceaseless allegations that Democrats are "weaponizing" the government by launching investigations into former President Donald Trump over his handling of classified information after leaving office and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Jack Smith is leading those probes as special counsel, a position designed to maximize his independence from the Justice Department.
Still, McCarthy's comments are easily the furthest he's gone after Biden.
The speaker has been the focus of a pressure campaign from lawmakers such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who have been seeking Biden's ouster since he took office. However, until Monday, McCarthy was urging his right-flank to hold off.
"I don't know that we need any more now that we've had them referred already. We're already having investigations," McCarthysaid last month.
The speaker has so far sated his conference by voicing support for possible impeachment inquiries into other administration figures, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, though his comments Monday indicated another concession to the firebrands could be coming.
"I believe we will follow this all the way to the end, and this is going to rise to an impeachment inquiry the way the constitution tells us to do this, and we have to get the answers to these questions," he told Hannity.
While an impeachment effort would mark a win for some of the House's hardliners, it would likely face opposition from GOP moderates -- especially the 18 Republicans who represent districts Biden won in 2020 and are up for reelection last year.
"Impeachment shouldn't be something that is frivolous and treated in that way," Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., one of those 18 Republicans, told reporters last month as GOP lawmakers discussed a privileged resolution to impeach Biden.
