The US Congress on Wednesday approved the formal opening of an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, motivated by the controversial affairs of the president’s son abroad, but deemed completely unfounded by Democrats.
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This procedure has almost no chance of succeeding, but could turn into a headache for the White House before the presidential election in November 2024, for which Joe Biden is a candidate. Conservatives, in the majority in the House of Representatives since January, accuse the Democratic leader of having used his influence when he was Barack Obama’s vice-president (2009-2017) to allow his son to do questionable business in China and in Ukraine.
“ Joe Biden repeatedly lied to the American people », Accused the head of the House investigative committee, James Comer, from the hemicycle. The president, the Democrats, and his son deny these accusations outright. The Republicans ” choose to waste their time with a baseless political scheme »accused Joe Biden after the vote. “ Instead of working to make Americans’ lives better, their priority is to attack me with lies “, he said in a press release.
“ Errors »
“ My father was never financially involved in my business », Swept Hunter Biden, who has become a favored target of the right, during a rare press conference on Wednesday. Present before the American Congress, the fifty-year-old, with a past marked by addictions and indicted in two cases by the courts, admitted having done “ errors » in his life. But he accused “the Trumpists” of having tried to “ dehumanize “, For ” harm » to his father.
For this reason, he refused to participate in a closed-door hearing organized by the Republicans, who had summoned him to appear at the Capitol on Wednesday. “ In the depths of my addiction, I was extremely irresponsible with my finances. But to suggest that this warrants an impeachment inquiry is beyond absurd. It’s not being ashamed of anything “, did he declare.
After opening an investigation against the father, who denounces their sense of priorities, the Republican elected officials now want to launch proceedings for contempt of Congress against the son. Another way to maintain suspicion around what they call a culture of corruption in the Biden family, during the 2024 electoral campaign, underlines our correspondent in Washington, Guillaume Naudin.
No evidence at present
An impeachment investigation, long demanded by elected officials close to Donald Trump, had already been opened against Joe Biden in the summer. A first parliamentary hearing was even organized on the subject at the end of September, during which the experts interviewed agreed that there was currently nothing to justify an indictment of President Biden. “ There is no evidence that President Biden committed any wrongdoing », Added the Democratic leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries on Wednesday.
The Republicans, however, believe that the formal opening of the investigation, adopted by their votes alone, will offer them additional powers, and therefore new possibilities to incriminate the Democratic leader. “ Now is the time for answers to the American people », Launched Wednesday the Speaker of the House, Republican Mike Johnson.
(and with AFP)