On Monday, the White House turned down a last-ditch request by House Republicans to have President Joe Biden appear before legislators as part of the Republicans’ impeachment investigation, which has been stalled.
The White House referred to the invitation that was extended to Biden last month as a “partisan charade” in an impeachment investigation that has failed to find any proof that the president was involved in any misconduct during his time in office. The letter was delivered to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer. Republicans in the House have been investigating what they saw as an influence-peddling plot involving the Biden family’s financial affairs.
As if that weren’t enough evidence that the administration sees the House Republicans’ attempt to remove Biden from office as essentially finished, Sauber will be departing the White House early next month. The attorney was appointed in 2022 to supervise the administration’s reaction to probes by Congress as Democrats prepared to lose control of the House of Representatives in November.
Despite their slim majority, Republicans in the House are unable to impeach the president because they have failed to find proof of his misconduct. Consequently, Republicans seem to be at a standstill when deciding how or when to conclude their probe.
While Comer did not officially schedule a hearing for Biden to testify this week, he had asked him to do so.
Efforts to have the president appear before Comer’s committee have reportedly been pushed by Comer himself. House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, jointly heading the investigation with Comer and have signed many letters with him, did not co-sign the invitation to come before Comer’s committee. According to a person familiar with the conversations, Comer informed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office that he would invite Biden, but Johnson did not have any say.
Even other Republicans saw the president’s invitation as a desperate attempt to re-ignite the inquiry, which has so far failed to find proof of Biden’s misconduct despite interviewing hundreds of witnesses and poring through hundreds of thousands of bank records.
