House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Republican House investigators handling an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden could subpoena his son, Hunter Biden, but are waiting for the right moment before taking that step.
Fox News host Maria Bartiromo repeatedly pressed Mr. McCarthy about a potential Mr. Biden subpoena during an interview on Sunday. The House speaker said such a subpoena is forthcoming, but indicated he would not let media pressure dictate its timing.
“There’s a strategy behind everything. We only follow facts. Hunter Biden will get subpoenaed, but when’s the appropriate time?” Mr. McCarthy said. “Do you do it because television wants it or do you do it around the facts and the timing? I think we should have the bank statements to actually know where did the money go, so you would know the questions to ask Hunter Biden.”
Mr. McCarthy said a premature subpoena of the president’s son might create a spectacle for fundraising purposes, but said he’d rather wait until Republicans have other pieces of evidence that can guide their questioning of the younger Biden.
In particular, Mr. McCarthy noted recent allegations President Biden and his son may have communicated back and forth through a number of different aliases and private emails while the elder Biden was serving as the vice president.
In at least one of these alleged pseudonymous emails, Republican investigators believe then-Vice President Biden’s son was looped in on a phone call his father had with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, at a time when the younger Biden was engaged in business in Ukraine. Republican investigators have raised allegations that President Biden leveraged his influence throughout his political career to benefit his family members in various business dealings.
“We also have 5,400 emails [in which] Joe Biden used as vice president a false name, that we have not been able to get yet,” Mr. McCarthy told Ms. Bartiromo.
Republican lawmakers and private organizations have requested access to these alleged pseudonymous communications, but have seen limited results thus far. Last month, the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), alleging the executive branch agency had identified nearly 5,400 communications pertaining to the alleged pseudonyms, but that the agency had turned over none of those records.
“Wouldn’t it be smarter in an investigation that you were able to get all of those emails?” Mr. McCarthy said of these communications.
The Republican House speaker said impeachment investigators could eventually subpoena other members of the Biden family as well.
“It looks to me like nine Biden family members got money,” Mr. McCarthy said. “I want to see bank statements. I think they’d have to come before us to answer questions.”
NTD News reached out to the White House for comment about the developing impeachment inquiry. The White House did not respond by the time this article was published.
McCarthy Faces Pressure on Many Fronts
The Republican House speaker is moving forward with the impeachment effort amid criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
Mr. McCarthy said Republican investigators have been doing “a very good job” thus far in investigating the president and his family’s business dealings and that he wants those investigators to continue to set the pace. At the same time, Democrats have denounced the Republican House majority’s impeachment inquiry and impugned the evidence uncovered thus far.
After the launch of the impeachment inquiry, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said, “The illegitimate impeachment inquiry launched by Extreme MAGA Republicans is regrettable, reckless, and reprehensible. It is a political revenge tour that lacks any factual or constitutional basis.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) asserted that the Republican impeachment effort on the House side relies on “MAGA-laced conspiracy theories.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) outright claimed there’s “no evidence” to support the impeachment inquiry.
Some Republicans have also said they want to see more evidence before any potential move to impeach the current president.
Last week, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told The Epoch Times he would “wait to hear more” before deciding where he stands on the impeachment effort.
Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) offered support for the impeachment inquiry process, but signaled he doesn’t want a rushed decision on impeachment charges.
“I have yet to receive any reports of sufficient evidence worthy of impeachment coming from the three House committees investigating President Biden and his family,” Mr. Santos told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement. “However, if the committee requires expansion of its scope via an impeachment inquiry, I would be in favor of that. A cheap impeachment that mirrors [former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s] political stunt against President [Donald] Trump last Congress after he left the White House degrades the significance of impeachment standards.”
Mr. McCarthy faces some political pressure even among Republicans fully in favor of the impeachment inquiry. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, for instance, have argued that the impeachment inquiry is a small measure of appeasement while they remain at odds with the House Speaker over other issues, like the 2024 government budget.
In a House floor speech moments after Mr. McCarthy announced the impeachment inquiry, House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) criticized the House speaker for not doing more to force spending caps and called the impeachment inquiry “a baby step following weeks of pressure from House conservatives to do more.” Contrary to Mr. McCarthy’s timing preferences, Mr. Gaetz argued that House investigators should have already subpoenaed Hunter Biden.
Mr. Gaetz has also threatened to launch an effort to oust Mr. McCarthy from the House speakership. In his interview with Fox News on Sunday, Mr. McCarthy said an effort to oust him as the House speaker “would be exactly what the president wants.”
