House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer — who’s led a string of investigations into the Biden family’s business dealings — believes an impeachment inquiry into the president could be imminent.
“I think there’s consensus in our conference now that we’re gonna have to go to impeachment inquiry. Obviously, that’ll be Speaker McCarthy’s call,” Comer told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Wednesday night.
“I feel like that is imminent.”
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has actively dangled the prospect of opening an inquiry, but some moderate members of the wafer-thin 222 to 212 GOP House majority aren’t sold.
Some such as Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) have publicly signaled apprehension about doing so, raising doubts about such a probe getting approval.
As a workaround, McCarthy could skip the tradition of holding a floor vote to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry, similar to what his predecessor, Speaker emeritus Nancy Pelosi (R-Calif.) did against former President Donald Trump.
Comer has been the GOP point man in the lower chamber for investigating the Bidens and their foreign business dealings, which would be the underpinning of such an endeavor.
He also long trafficked in insinuations that Hunter Biden and other members of the family engaged in influence peddling.
Recently, Comer latched onto revelations that the president previously used pseudonyms.
“Democrats have gone stone cold silent in Washington in their defense of Joe Biden,” Comer said, claiming that there was an email sent to Hunter Biden in which the elder Biden used a pseudonym and discussed Ukraine policy.
White House officials have forcefully pushed back against impeachment inquiry talk and allegations of wrongdoing.
“Just when you think @HouseGOP shenanigans can’t get dumber they start fussing about email “pseudonyms” Newsflash: government leaders for decades have used aliases to avoid spam & hacking Did they think he was just joe dot biden @? LOL Wonder what some Congressmen’s emails are!” White House Spokesman Ian Sams posted on X, formerly Twitter.
President Biden and the White House have insisted that he did not discuss business with his son, but Comer argues the opposite is true.
“I am here to tell you, Sean, Joe Biden was front and center,” Comer said. “He met with every one of these people that he claimed he never met with, that he never spoke to, and we are putting together the timeline where Hunter Biden was traveling to many of these countries on Air Force Two while Joe Biden was vice president.”
On Wednesday, Comer demanded the National Archives and Records Administration turn over records about Hunter Biden’s access to Air Force Two during his father’s vice presidency days.
Already, multiple Republicans such as Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Col.) and Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) have introduced articles of impeachment against the president.
“The thing that holds up whether we do impeachment inquiry, provide us the documents we’re asking,” McCarthy told Fox Business earlier this month. “The whole determination here is how the Bidens handled this.”
As McCarthy weighs an impeachment inquiry, he is grappling with the specter of a government shutdown with both chambers of Congress presenting dueling visions for the 12 appropriation bill method the two parties agreed to use to fund the government.
McCarthy has publicly backed a stopgap measure known as a continuing resolution to keep the government funded and avert a shutdown, which has drawn flack from his conservative flank.
Should Congress fail to act before the next fiscal year, which starts in October, there will be a shutdown.
The House is currently on recess and slated to gavel back into session next month.
