House Republicans are preparing to take a formal vote on their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden in the coming weeks, Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told GOP lawmakers on Wednesday morning.
Emmer addressed House Republicans as they prepare for a make-or-break decision on how far to take their probe of the president’s connections to his son Hunter’s overseas business dealings — which, so far, has failed to yield any tangible proof that the First Son influenced his father’s decisions, as president or vice president.
Republicans are pressing for a closed-door interview with Hunter Biden sometime next month, though they rejected an offer by his counsel to appear at a public hearing instead. Conservatives who want an impeachment vote are hopeful that there will be sufficient GOP buy-in by January for articles of impeachment against Joe Biden, though centrists and Republicans who represent districts that he won in 2020 remain skeptical.
Generally speaking, a House vote on an impeachment inquiry — a separate, preliminary step before a formal impeachment vote — would also appear to help Republicans work around a Trump-era order that bars any administration from engaging in such an inquiry if the full chamber has not voted for one. That order dates back to 2019, when House Democrats delayed for months before voting to authorize the inquiry that led to Donald Trump’s first impeachment.
Kyle Cheney contributed.
