众议院共和党人周三通过了一项决议正式启动他们正在进行的弹劾调查乔·拜登总统。
该决议在党内投票中以221票对212票获得批准，指示三个众议院委员会继续进行调查，这些调查尚未产生任何确凿的证据来支持共和党人的说法，即拜登直接参与并受益于他儿子和兄弟的外国商业交易。
共和党人称周三的投票——一名民主党人跳过了——是巩固调查的法律地位和打击他们所说的拜登政府阻挠的必要步骤。
白宫对国会的一些要求提出了质疑，部分声称“宪法要求众议院在委员会根据弹劾权利用强制程序之前授权进行弹劾调查。”
该决议在周三获得批准后，众议院共和党领导人在一份联合声明中表示，“我们将继续关注他们所领导的事实。”
“美国人民应该得到答案。这次弹劾调查将帮助我们找到他们，”他们说。
拜登在白宫发表的自己的声明中回击说，共和党人忽视了国家的“紧迫挑战”。
他说:“他们没有做任何事情来改善美国人的生活，而是专注于用谎言攻击我。他们没有做好需要做的紧急工作，而是选择浪费时间。"
2023年12月12日，众议院议长迈克·约翰逊在美国国会大厦的灯台点亮仪式上发表讲话。
迈克尔·布罗克斯坦/SOPA图片
众议院多数党党鞭汤姆·艾默强调，投票赞成该决议并不等于弹劾，议长迈克·约翰逊周二表示，他们“不能预先判断”调查的“结果”。
白宫将调查称为“政治噱头”，并予以回击，称共和党人已经收到了数千份文件，包括银行记录和数小时的证词。
“这里没有证据，”白宫新闻秘书卡琳·让·皮埃尔在周三的每日简报会上告诉记者。
共和党调查中的一个关键人物，总统的儿子亨特·拜登，无视传票出席周三早些时候的闭门作证。相反，他出现在国会大厦外面为回答“委员会的任何合法问题”提供公开证词，但拒绝在私下场合作证。
“共和党人不想要一个公开的过程，让美国人可以看到他们的策略，暴露他们毫无根据的调查，或者听到我要说的话，”小拜登说。“他们在害怕什么?我在这里。”
亨特·拜登抨击共和党的调查，称所谓的“共和党人”攻击他的人格，试图让他的父亲难堪，并在政治上损害他。
“让我尽可能清楚地说明。亨特·拜登说:“我的父亲没有在经济上参与我的任何业务——不是作为执业律师，不是作为乌克兰能源公司Burisma的董事会成员，不是我与中国私营商人的合作伙伴，不是我在国内外的投资，当然也不是作为一名艺术家。”。
众议院监督委员会主席詹姆斯·卡莫表示，他们计划以藐视国会罪起诉亨特·拜登。
众议院司法委员会主席吉姆·乔丹抓住了亨特·拜登的评论，即他的父亲没有“卷入财务”，将其描述为与过去的声明“大相径庭”。
乔丹还认为闭门取证会更有效。“如果你现在以一种开放的形式做这件事，你会得到阻挠，你会得到演讲，你会得到各种各样的东西，”他告诉记者。“我们想要的是事实。”
周三的弹劾调查投票意味着，随着总统竞选进入高潮，共和党主导的调查将持续到2024年，并增加了对乔·拜登进行更严重投票的可能性，包括是否对他提出弹劾条款。
投票前一个小时的辩论提供了双方对调查的简要看法。共和党人表示，决议和调查是关于过程的，而民主党人批评这是一场诽谤运动。
“我们今天在众议院，浪费时间和纳税人的钱进行非法的弹劾调查，因为傀儡主人唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)指示极端的MAGA共和党人对乔·拜登(Joe Biden)发起政治攻击，”众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯(Hakeem Jeffries)说，他展示了一个标签为“无为的共和党国会”的标志。
领导第二次弹劾前总统特朗普的宪法学者杰米·拉斯金(Jamie Raskin)表示，共和党人无法“告诉我们拜登总统犯了什么罪”。
这位马里兰州的民主党人说:“这个愚蠢、浮躁的调查让我们无法为美国人民做任何真正的工作。”
另一方面，共和党人表示，投票是他们调查针对总统及其家人的指控的责任的一部分。
“我对今天的决议并不感到高兴，但我知道众议院将履行自己的职责，”众议院规则委员会主席汤姆·科尔在辩论中说。
“我们是这个国家唯一被赋予弹劾权力的机构，”他补充道。“必须有选择地、明智地使用这一权力，并且必须经过充分的审议。通过今天的决议，我们将确保众议院能够完成调查。”
加利福尼亚州共和党众议员汤姆·麦克林托克(Tom McClintock)附和道:“我们有责任对这些指控进行彻底调查。”
House Republicans formalize impeachment inquiry into President Biden
House Republicans on Wednesday passed a resolutionformalizing their ongoing impeachment inquiryinto President Joe Biden.
The resolution, approved 221-212 in a party-line vote, directs three House committees to continue their investigations, which have yet to yield any hard evidence to support Republicans' claims that Biden was directly involved and benefited from his son and brother's foreign business dealings.
Republicans have called Wednesday's vote -- which one Democrat skipped -- a necessary step to fortify the inquiry's legal standing and combat what they said was obstruction from the Biden administration.
The White House has challenged some congressional requests, in part asserting the "Constitution requires that the full House authorize an impeachment inquiry before a committee may utilize compulsory process pursuant to the impeachment power."
After the resolution was approved on Wednesday, the House's GOP leaders said in a joint statement, in part, that "we will continue to follow the facts where they lead."
"The American people deserve answers. This impeachment inquiry will help us find them," they said.
Biden fired back in his own statement issued by the White House, saying Republicans were ignoring the country's "pressing challenges."
"Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies," he said. "Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time."
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer had emphasized that voting in favor of the resolution did not equal impeachment, and Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday they "can't prejudge the outcome" of the probe.
The White House, which has labeled the inquiry a "political stunt," pushed back, saying that Republicans have already received thousands of documents, including bank records, and hours of testimony.
"There's no evidence here," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters at Wednesday's daily briefing.
A key figure in the GOP probe, the president's son Hunter Biden, defied a subpoena to sit for a closed-door deposition earlier Wednesday. Instead, heappeared outside the Capitolto offer public testimony to answer "any of the committees' legitimate questions" but refused to testify in a private setting.
"Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry or hear what I have to say," the younger Biden said. "What are they afraid of? I am here."
Hunter Biden slammed the GOP probe, saying so-called "MAGA Republicans" have assailed his character in an effort to embarrass his father and damage him politically.
"Let me state as clearly as I can. My father was not financially involved in any of my business -- not as a practicing lawyer, not as a board member of Burisma [a Ukrainian energy company], not in my partnership with a Chinese private businessman, not in my investments at home nor abroad, and certainly not as an artist," Hunter Biden said.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said they plan to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress.
And House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan seized on Hunter Biden's comment that his father was not "financially involved," characterizing it as a "huge departure" from past statements.
Jordan also argued that a closed-door deposition would have been more effective. "If you do it in an open format now, you're gonna get filibusters, you're gonna get speeches, you're gonna get all kinds of things," he told reporters. "What we want is the facts."
Wednesday's impeachment inquiry vote means the GOP-led investigation will continue into 2024, as the presidential race kicks into high gear -- and raises the prospect of more serious votes against Joe Biden, including on whether to bring articles of impeachment against him.
An hour of debate ahead of the vote offered a distilled view of both sides on the inquiry. Republicans said the resolution and investigation were about process, while Democrats criticized it as a smear campaign.
"We are here today on the House floor, wasting time and taxpayer dollars on an illegitimate impeachment inquiry, because Donald Trump, the puppet master, has directed the extreme MAGA Republicans to launch a political hit job against Joe Biden," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said as he displayed a sign with the hashtag "Do-Nothing Republican Congress."
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a constitutional scholar who led the second impeachment effort against former President Trump, said Republicans aren't able to "tell us what President Biden's crime was."
"This stupid, blundering investigation is keeping us from getting any real work done for the people of America," the Maryland Democrat said.
Republicans, on the other hand, said the vote was part of their responsibility to investigate claims against the president and his family.
"I take no joy in today's resolution, but I know the House will do its duty," House Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said during debate.
"We are the sole institution in the country granted the awesome power of impeachment," he added. "It is a power that must be used selectively and wisely and only after full deliberations. With today's resolution, we are ensuring that the House will be able to complete its inquiry."
Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., echoed that: "We owe it to the country to get to the bottom of these allegations."
