The 80-year-old Democrat Joe Biden has so far remained silent about the impeachment investigation.
Washington:
The White House on Wednesday dismissed “baseless” allegations of misconduct against US President Joe Biden after Republican lawmakers launched an impeachment inquiry into him.
While the 80-year-old Democrat remained silent when asked by reporters about the investigation, his spokeswoman defended herself against the investigations by his political opponents.
“They spent all year investigating the president … and showed up with no evidence, no evidence that he did anything wrong,” Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.
“That’s because the president did nothing wrong.”
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy bowed to intense pressure from his party’s far right and approved the launch of an impeachment inquiry on Tuesday.
Republican House members are accusing Democrat Biden of “lying” to the American people about his son Hunter’s controversial business dealings abroad.
But Jean-Pierre said Republicans didn’t even have enough support for a House vote to authorize impeachment.
“Even Republicans in the House have said there is no evidence,” she said. “This is a political ploy.”
The investigation comes as Biden faces low poll numbers ahead of a likely rematch with former President Donald Trump in next year’s presidential election.
Biden ignored impeachment questions from reporters at the White House while leading a meeting of his “Cancer Cabinet,” which aims to eradicate the disease. This is part of a recent effort by the government to shift focus back to its domestic agenda.
– ‘Good things’ –
Cancer is personal for Biden, whose eldest son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 at age 46. Biden had a cancerous skin lesion removed in February, while doctors removed two from first lady Jill Biden a month earlier.
Biden has steadfastly stood by his only surviving son, Hunter, 53.
The younger Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China while his father was vice president under Barack Obama have been a constant target of Republicans.
Hunter Biden, a recovering drug addict, is currently under investigation by a Justice Department special counsel for possible tax evasion and is expected to be indicted on a firearms violation by the end of this month.
However, he has not been accused of any crimes related to his foreign dealings, and there has been no credible evidence that the president was involved in anything illegal.
But the investigation threatens to distract the White House and give Republicans new material to attack ahead of the November 2024 election.
According to a new national poll from Quinnipiac University, Biden has a slim 1 percent lead over Trump in a hypothetical matchup – 47 percent to 46 percent.
Half of voters believed Joe Biden was involved in Hunter’s business dealings with China and Ukraine, while 35 percent believed the president did something illegal, the poll found.
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