Marshall, Estes offer enthusiastic support for U.S. House impeachment inquiry of Biden

TOPEKA — Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall and U.S. Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas offered enthusiastic support for initiation of an impeachment inquiry by House committees into President Joe Biden’s family business dealings.

The inquiry would expand upon ongoing scrutiny of business relationships of Biden’s son, Hunter, before the president took office. U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California authorized the investigation Tuesday without conducting a House vote. McCarthy was criticized by officials with Biden’s reelection campaign.

Estes, who serves the 4th District centered on Wichita, said a Biden impeachment inquiry was the next logical step in determining the extent of the president’s participation in family business dealings with foreign entities.

“House Republicans have uncovered an overwhelming amount of evidence including bank records, suspicious activity reports, emails, texts and witness testimony that reveal Joe Biden lied to the American people about his involvement in his family’s influence peddling schemes,” he said.

Estes, who joined the two other Kansas GOP House members who voted against impeaching former President Donald Trump in 2021, accused the U.S. Department of Justice of inhibiting access to information that “could have led to Joe Biden.”

Marshall voted to acquit Trump and labeled that endeavor as evidence of Democrats’ “political hatred” of Trump. He said the impeachment inquiry of Biden was necessary and referred to the president’s family as a “crime family.”

“The Biden family has demonstrated a long history and culture of corruption,” Marshall said. “We know when there’s smoke, there’s fire. The American people deserve to know if the president of the United States is compromised, and I look forward to a full investigation and its findings.”

In July, U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner of the 2nd District in Kansas accused the Justice Department of misconduct in handling a criminal investigation of Hunter Biden. He said testimony to a House committee by IRS investigators pointed to corruption by the Biden family.

“Are we supposed to believe that Hunter Biden, who most of us wouldn’t hire to dog sit, was paid millions of dollars by foreign companies for his ‘business’ expertise?” said LaTurner, who also opposed impeachment of Trump. “Or was it to influence foreign policy because Hunter Biden’s dad was vice president?”

Trump was impeached twice by the House and was acquitted by the Senate. Trump, the leading candidate in the GOP presidential race, has been indicted four times this year and state and federal charges.

Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for the Biden-Harris campaign, said McCarthy cemented his role  as Trump’s campaign “super-surrogate by turning the House of Representatives into an arm of his presidential campaign.” Moussa said McCarthy flipped on a pledge not to launch an impeachment inquiry without a House floor vote.

“What has changed since then? Several members of the Speaker’s own conference have come out and publicly panned impeachment as a political stunt, pointing out there is no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden as Republicans litigate the same debunked conspiracy theories they’ve investigated for over four years,” Moussa said.