Speaker Mike Johnson uses new platform to push Biden impeachment forward

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) used his first television interview as speaker on Thursday to inspire hope regarding the merit of the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

“We have the receipts on so much of this now,” Johnson told Sean Hannity on Fox News, discussing whether Biden was involved in his family’s foreign business dealings. “It’s a real problem.”

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“That’s the reason that we shifted into the impeachment inquiry stage on the president himself because if, in fact, all the evidence leads to where we believe it will, that’s very likely impeachable offenses,” he explained. “That’s listed as a cause for impeachment in the Constitution — bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Johnson noted that “it looks and smells a lot like that.”

However, the Louisiana Republican cautioned, “We’re going to follow the truth where it leads and engage in due process because, again, we’re the rule-of-law party.”

“We don’t do that like the other team,” he added. “We have to base it upon the evidence, and the evidence is coming together. We’ll see where it leads.”

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced an impeachment inquiry into Biden in September, which had been lobbied for by several hard-line conservative members.

“House Republicans have uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s actions,” he said at the time. “Taken together, these allegations paint a picture of corruption.”

The inquiry is being led by the chairmen of the Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees.

The first hearing, led by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), was held later that month. During the six-hour event, Republican witness Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor, pointed to possible impeachable offenses, pointing specifically to abuse of power, which he said “is the article that is very, very common.”

“It tends to be a catchall, and it is the one that I’ve always been a little bit uncomfortable with, which is why I suggest you end there rather than start there because that’s the article that brings in a lot of noncriminal conduct, and frankly, I think that you need to focus as much as you can on the evidence and whether you can establish these connections,” he explained.

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The Oversight Committee most recently announced the discovery of a $200,000 payment to the president from Biden’s brother, James Biden, which occurred the same day one of James Biden’s business ventures gave him a loan in the same amount, per a bank document.

“James Biden wrote this check to Joe Biden as a loan repayment. Americore, a distressed company, loaned money to James Biden, who then sent it to Joe Biden,” Comer said. “Even if this was a personal loan repayment, it’s still troubling that Joe Biden’s ability to be paid back by his brother depended on the success of his family’s shady financial dealings.”