Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, backed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) decision to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, saying that the corruption surrounding the Biden family needed to be “untangle[d].”
Punchbowl News reported that Barrasso was the only Republican in leadership who backed McCarthy’s efforts, telling the publication that the House was headed in “the right direction.”
“The House of Representatives has done an excellent job trying to uncover the tangled web of corruption that we’ve seen coming out of the Biden Administration and specifically the Biden family,” he said. “Clearly there are facts that need further investigation. The House is headed in the right direction.”
A previous version of this report noted that, according to Punchbowl News, Barrasso had invited House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) — who will oversee the impeachment inquiry — to the weekly Steering Committee meeting on Wednesday to update senators on the effort. A subsequent report from NBC News noted that the invite was extended by the Steering Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
McCarthy’s announcement comes as 80% of Republican voters say that they support Congress impeaching Biden, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) distanced himself from the impeachment inquiry, saying that the Senate needed to focus on “keeping the trains running.” Thune indicated that he does not believe that conducting an impeachment trial during the middle of the Senate trying to pass government funding for the upcoming fiscal year would be a fruitful endeavor.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who previously said impeaching Biden would “not be good for the country,” declined to weigh in much on the matter on Tuesday, only saying that McCarthy did not need his advice.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a member of the Senate GOP leadership team, said, “Rather than doing something they know is unlikely to end the way they would like, maybe they want to emphasize other things.”
In a letter to Republican members, McCarthy said that the House’s investigation so far has “found that President Biden lied to the American people about knowledge of his family’s foreign business dealings.”
McCarthy continued:
Eyewitness testimony revealed that the President joined multiple phone calls and had various interactions with his son’s business partners. For example, Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s business partner, testified that Joe Biden spoke or met with Hunter Biden’s business associates around 20 times, and that after meeting with President Biden, foreign nationals sent Hunter Biden millions of dollars, and bought him a Porsche.
Bank records show that nearly $20 million in payments were directed to Biden family members and associates through numerous shell companies. The Treasury Department has more than 150 transactions involving the Biden family and their business associates that were flagged as “suspicious activity” by U.S. banks.
A trusted FBI informant provided information about alleged bribes to the Biden family.
There is also evidence that Biden used his official office to coordinate with Hunter Biden’s business partner about Hunter’s role in Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
Finally, despite these serious allegations, it appears that the President’s family has been afforded special treatment by Biden’s own administration – treatment they would not otherwise have received if they were not related to the President. For example, in July, there was the sweetheart plea deal that President Biden’s Department of Justice tried to sneak past the public. Had a federal judge not rejected the deal, it would have gone through unnoticed.
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