This Thursday, starting at 10:00 AM ET, a hearing was held in the House of Representatives of more than six hours called "The Basis for an Impeachment Inquiry of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr." During the debate, House Republicans, led by Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), defended the investigation against Biden in the face of questions from their Democratic colleagues.
"The bottom line is that the committee has shown the Bidens alone brought in over $15 million in their foreign influence peddling, over $24 million if you account for their associate's earnings from the schemes. We have established in the first phase of this investigation where this money has come from: Ukraine, Romania, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, it didn't come from selling anything legitimate. It largely went unreported to the IRS. It was funneled through shell companies and third parties to hide the Biden's fingerprints".
After the first minutes of the hearing, Comer said that, after detecting the origin of the money, the committee he leads now must find where the profits go and to do so he promised to subpoena commercial and business records of Hunter Biden, James Biden (the president's brother) and their affiliated companies.
"Now we know much of the money goes -- Hunter Biden, Haley Biden, James Biden, Sarah Biden, other Biden family members and their business entities. What we need to understand is where it goes next. That is the question this committee to answer. And the evidence supports that next step," he said.
Other key members of Congress, such as Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, also listed the reasons why congressmen should continue with the investigations against Biden.
"Never forget four fundamental facts: One, Hunter Biden gets put on the board of Burisma, gets paid a lot of money. Fact number two: Hunter Biden’s not qualified to sit on the board, not my words, his words. He says he got on the board because of the brand, because of the name. Fact number three: the executives at Burisma ask Hunter Biden to weigh in and help them with the pressure they are under from the prosecutor in Ukraine. Face number four: Joe Biden goes to Ukraine on December 9, 2015, gives the speech attacking the prosecutor that starts the process of getting that guy fired,” Jordan added.
Likewise, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) mentioned Biden's involvement with his son's foreign associates.
“Whether it was lunches, phone calls, White House meetings, or official foreign trips, Hunter Biden cashed in by arranging access to Joe Biden, the family brand,” Smith said. “The Biden family and their associates received millions in payments from foreign sources, including from Russia, China, Ukraine, Romania, and in one email, Hunter Biden even bragged that he cut a deal for $10 million from just one company for ‘introductions alone.’ And yet the DOJ wanted to keep the spotlight as far from Joe Biden as possible.”
"A waste of time"
While Republicans showed the facts obtained from the House committees' investigations into Hunter Biden's finances, Democrats questioned the investigation process, calling it an invalid waste of time.
The Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, said this Thursday that “Republican extremism is rearing its ugly head” in the midst of fruitless negotiations to avoid an almost imminent government shutdown.
“They are wasting time and taxpayer dollars on an illegitimate impeachment inquiry when we're about 48 hours away or so from an extreme MAGA, republican government shutdown — and this is what they're focused on, an illegitimate impeachment inquiry as opposed to doing the business of the American people,” said Jeffries.
Jeffries' tone was practically replicated by the majority of Democrats on their social media.
“The government shuts down in TWO DAYS, and House Republicans are… wasting time today holding a sham impeachment hearing??? Stop playing political games. Do your jobs. Fund the government,” Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, who voted for the impeachment of former President Donald Trump in 2021, wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
