House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said that he believes criminal referrals rather than impeachment is the best way forward concerning President Joe Biden.
He made his opinion known after the committee held an impeachment inquiry on March 20 concerning President Biden’s role in his family’s business affairs.
“We’ve gotten the evidence that the Bidens were influence peddling. They never paid a penny of taxes on it,” the congressman said.
“Joe Biden’s lied over a dozen times about his knowledge of who his family was doing business with, and the fact that he did communicate often with these people.”
He also admitted that he would vote to impeach President Biden “right now” and said that the inquiry was meant to gather more information necessary to win in court.
But, he does not believe impeachment would yield the results he and his committee want.
“What does real accountability look like,” he asked. “Does it look like impeaching Joe Biden in the House and then the Senate tabling it like they’re gonna do with the Merrick Garland impeachment?
“Or does it mean providing real criminal referrals to the Department of Justice?
“I think the latter.”
Mr. Comer continues to push forward and now calls on President Biden to testify, saying after the hearing that no one is denying that they have proven the Biden family were influence peddling.
The disagreement remains on whether or not the president knew about it. And the only way to figure that out, he said, is to ask the president himself.
“We believe Joe Biden knew darn well what was going on all along,” he said. “We’re going to give Joe Biden an opportunity to defend himself. If he chooses not to, then we’re going to proceed forward.”
During the inquiry, Hunter Biden’s former business partners, Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis, testified that the Bidens gave them what Mr. Galanis called “the Biden lift.”
“From my direct personal experience and what I’ve subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Biden family,” Mr. Bobulinski testified, adding that President Biden was an “active, aware enabler” of his family members’ business endeavors.
When Mr. Bobulinski suggested President Biden had violated anti-corruption and conspiracy laws, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), and the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said: “Excuse me, sir. RICO is not a crime. It is a category.”
“Mr. Chairman, I want to help you out … make the motion to impeach President Biden,” Mr. Moskozitz said. “Go ahead. I'll second it.
“No, nothing. Okay. We got nothing. So I want it with my last couple months to show the American people that they’re never going to impeach Joe Biden, it’s never going to happen because they don’t have the evidence.”
Republicans declined to vote, arguing that they did not want to rush the process.
