House vote on Biden impeachment inquiry expected next week

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said a vote to launch a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden will likely happen next week.

Speaker Mike Johnson has been eying a vote to add weight to the inquiry, which was launched in September by his predecessor without a vote.

The House is investigating Mr. Biden’s links to his family’s hugely profitable business deals in foreign countries and the alleged influence-peddling schemes that were the basis of the deals.

Mr. Comer, a Kentucky Republican whose committee is leading the impeachment probe, told The Washington Times he said he “absolutely” expects the speaker to get a House vote on the impeachment inquiry next week. He said the only impediment to the vote was the slow-moving legislative process.

Congressional Democrats and the White House have argued that the inquiry was not legitimate because it had not been authorized by a floor vote. The same criticism was leveled by Republicans when Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2019 launched an impeachment inquiry into President Trump without a vote, though she eventually formalized it with a House vote.

Mr. Johnson ​o​n Saturday accused the White House of stonewalling the investigation and said the vote was now needed to strengthen the probe.