The House on Wednesday authorized the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, with every Republican rallying behind the politically charged process despite lingering concerns among some in the party that the investigation has yet to produce evidence of misconduct by the president.
The 221-212 party-line vote put the entire House Republican conference on record in support of an impeachment process that can lead to the ultimate penalty for a president: punishment for what the Constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors,” which can lead to removal from office if convicted in a Senate trial.
Authorizing the monthslong inquiry ensures that the impeachment investigation extends well into 2024, when Biden will be running for reelection and seems likely to be squaring off against former President Donald Trump — who was twice impeached during his time in the White House. Trump has pushed his GOP allies in Congress to move swiftly on impeaching Biden, part of his broader calls for vengeance and retribution against his political enemies.
The decision to hold a vote came as House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team faced growing pressure to show progress in what has become a nearly yearlong probe centered around the business dealings of Biden's family members. While their investigation has raised ethical questions, no evidence has emerged that Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes in his current role or previous office as vice president.
Ahead of the vote, Johnson called it “the next necessary step" and acknowledged there are “a lot of people who are frustrated this hasn’t moved faster.“
In a recent statement, the White House called the whole process a “baseless fishing expedition” that Republicans are pushing ahead with “despite the fact that members of their own party have admitted there is no evidence to support impeaching President Biden.”
House Democrats rose in opposition to the inquiry resolution Wednesday.
“This whole thing is an extreme political stunt. It has no credibility, no legitimacy, and no integrity. It is a sideshow," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said during a floor debate.
Some House Republicans, particularly those hailing from politically divided districts, had been hesitant in recent weeks to take any vote on Biden's impeachment, fearing a significant political cost. But GOP leaders have made the case in recent weeks that the resolution is only a step in the process, not a decision to impeach Biden. That message seems to have won over skeptics.
“As we have said numerous times before, voting in favor of an impeachment inquiry does not equal impeachment,” Rep. Tom Emmer, a member of the GOP leadership team, said at a news conference Tuesday.
Emmer said Republicans “will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead, and if they uncover evidence of treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors, then and only then will the next steps towards impeachment proceedings be considered.”
Most of the Republicans reluctant to back the impeachment push have also been swayed by leadership's recent argument that authorizing the inquiry will give them better legal standing as the White House has questioned the legal and constitutional basis for their requests for information.
A letter last month from a top White House attorney to Republican committee leaders portrayed the GOP investigation as overzealous and illegitimate because the chamber had not yet authorized a formal impeachment inquiry by a vote of the full House. Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, also wrote that when Trump faced the prospect of impeachment by a Democratic-led House in 2019, Johnson had said at the time that any inquiry without a House vote would be a “sham.”
Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said this week that while there was no evidence to impeach the president, “that’s also not what the vote this week would be about.”
“We have had enough political impeachments in this country,” he said. “I don’t like the stonewalling the administration has done, but listen, if we don’t have the receipts, that should constrain what the House does long-term.”
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who has long been opposed to moving forward with impeachment, said that the White House questioning the legitimacy of the inquiry without a formal vote helped gain his support. “I can defend an inquiry right now,” he told reporters this week. "Let's see what they find out.”
House Democrats remained unified in their opposition to the impeachment process, saying it is a farce used by the GOP to take attention away from Trump and his legal woes.
“You don’t initiate an impeachment process unless there’s real evidence of impeachable offenses,” said Rep. Jerry Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, who oversaw the two impeachments into Trump. “There is none here. None.”
Democrats and the White House have repeatedly defended the president and his administration's cooperation with the investigation thus far, saying it has already made a massive trove of documents available.
Congressional investigators have obtained nearly 40,000 pages of subpoenaed bank records and dozens of hours of testimony from key witnesses, including several high-ranking Justice Department officials currently tasked with investigating the president's son, Hunter Biden.
While Republicans say their inquiry is ultimately focused on the president himself, they have taken particular interest in Hunter Biden and his overseas business dealings, from which they accuse the president of personally benefiting. Republicans have also focused a large part of their investigation on whistleblower allegations of interference in the long-running Justice Department investigation into the younger Biden's taxes and his gun use.
Hunter Biden is currently facing criminal charges in two states from the special counsel investigation. He’s charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss filed additional charges last week, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million in taxes over a three-year period.
Democrats have conceded that while the president's son is not perfect, he is a private citizen who is already being held accountable by the justice system.
“I mean, there’s a lot of evidence that Hunter Biden did a lot of improper things. He’s been indicted, he’ll stand trial,” Nadler said. “There’s no evidence whatsoever that the president did anything improper.”
Hunter Biden arrived for a rare public statement outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, saying he would not be appearing for his scheduled private deposition that morning. The president's son defended himself against years of GOP attacks and said his father has had no financial involvement in his business affairs.
His attorney has offered for Biden to testify publicly, citing concerns about Republicans manipulating any private testimony.
“Republicans do not want an open process where Americans can see their tactics, expose their baseless inquiry, or hear what I have to say,” Biden said outside the Capitol. “What are they afraid of? I am here.”
GOP lawmakers said that since Hunter Biden did not appear, they will begin contempt of Congress proceedings against him. “He just got into more trouble today,” Rep. James Comer, the House Oversight Committee chairman, told reporters Wednesday.
Campaign ActionHouse Republicans on Wednesday formally greenlit an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, their biggest step to date toward trying to remove the president from office.
Every Republican supported the 221-212 vote, which legally will further empower House GOP subpoenas. It comes at a critical juncture: The conference is preparing to make a decision as soon as January about whether or not to draft articles of impeachment.
It’s a win for Speaker Mike Johnson, who managed to unify his conference after battleground-district Republicans spent months resisting a formal inquiry — leading his predecessor to backtrack and start the investigation unilaterally.
“This is an important step. The impeachment power resides solely with the House of Representatives. If a majority of the House now says we’re in an official impeachment inquiry … that carries weight. That’s going to help us get these witnesses in,” Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said ahead of the vote.
Republicans are months into their impeachment probe, which has largely focused on the business deals of Joe Biden’s family members. While they’ve found evidence of Hunter Biden using his last name to bolster his own influence and poked holes in some previous statements by the White House and the president, they have yet to find direct evidence that the president’s official decisions were meant to benefit family businesses.
Even as Republicans inch toward making Biden the fourth president to ever be impeached, they are trying to draw a bright line between their vote on Wednesday and any eventual vote on impeachment articles.
Instead, GOP leaders have rallied their ranks behind the formal inquiry. That’s in part because of a letter the White House recently sent to congressional Republicans, citing a Trump-era Justice Department opinion to state that their requests are invalid without a formalization vote.
At the time, the Trump DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel was pushing back on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) decision to launch an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump without initially voting on it. Republicans blasted Pelosi’s strategy at the time.
“I was reluctant to do the inquiry because he was providing information. Now, if he's going to stop providing the information, I think we have no choice but to do it.,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.).
Republicans got unexpectedly complete unity on Wednesday as Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), a conservative who is retiring at the end of next year, supported a move that he had publicly criticized.
Buck has been one of the most vocal critics of his conference’s investigation, calling it “impeachment theater” and reiterating this week that he still does not believe his colleagues have found a direct link from Joe Biden to Hunter Biden’s business deals. Still, he voted yes.
He said after the vote that he still doesn’t see a link between Hunter Biden’s business activities and Joe Biden, but that he spoke with other members who stressed the vote was about investigating, not impeaching.
“I’m irritated that the White House sent that letter back. … I'm irritated that Hunter Biden comes to the Capitol and then doesn't go in,” Buck said.
The vote to formalize the inquiry comes just hours after Hunter Biden skipped a closed-door deposition for which Republicans had subpoenaed him to appear. Instead, he spoke briefly with reporters outside of the Capitol, but did not take any questions — reiterating his offer to testify in public and slamming Republicans.
“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies," Joe Biden said in a statement after the vote. "Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts.”
Now that Republicans have formalized their inquiry, investigators say they will try to compel Hunter Biden a second time to appear behind closed doors. They’re also vowing to hold him in contempt of Congress if he continues to resist the subpoena, as they prepare to get pulled into a court battle over their investigation.
Republicans are planning to sue to enforce their subpoenas against two DOJ tax officials, and they could also end up in court over their push to talk to a former White House counsel. In addition, the party is still waiting for documents it sought from the National Archives, which turned over new records just this week.
The White House has defended its compliance, noting in a recent memo that — between the administration, banks and private individuals — Republicans have received tens of thousands of financial documents and conducted dozens of hours of interviews.
Democrats are criticizing Republicans for moving forward to formalize their inquiry when some of their own members have acknowledged they haven’t yet met the bar for impeachment.
“A mountain of evidence and deluge of independent reporting, including from numerous conservative outlets, have discredited every single allegation leveled by Republicans against President Biden in their painstaking and fruitless inquiry,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), his party’s top member on the Oversight Committee.
Olivia Beavers contributed.
The House voted to formalize its impeachment inquiry into President Biden on Wednesday, taking a critical step that GOP leaders have argued is necessary to force the White House into complying with their investigation.
The measure passed 221 to 212, with every Republican voting in favor of it and all present Democrats voting against. Light cheering could be heard on the GOP side of the chamber after the measure passed, with pin drop silence on the Democratic side.
"We are now at a pivotal moment in our investigation. We will soon depose and interview several members of the Biden family and their associates about these influence-peddling schemes. But we are facing obstruction from the White House," Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said on the House floor ahead of the vote.
"The White House is seeking to block key testimony from current and former White House staff. It is also withholding thousands of records from Joe Biden’s time as Vice President. President Biden must be held accountable for his lies, corruption, and obstruction. We have a duty to provide the accountability and transparency that Americans demand and deserve."
The GOP-led committees on Oversight, Ways & Means and the Judiciary have been investigating Biden over accusations he had leveraged his office of vice president in the Obama administration to enrich his family through foreign businesses.
It's been heavily centered on one of the president's brothers, James Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden — who is under federal investigation for tax and firearm-related charges.
COMER DEFENDS PRIVATE DEPOSITION OF HUNTER BIDEN, VOWS TO RELEASE TRANSCRIPT AND HOLD PUBLIC HEARING
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., directed the House to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden in September, but the White House has dismissed the probe as illegitimate without a formal vote on the matter.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told Fox News Digital that the White House "requested" the House vote itself.
"The White House sent a letter… saying that the subpoenas [Republicans] had served will not be honored and won't even be recognized without a full vote of the House. So our speaker has done exactly what I would expect he would do as a lawyer. We're going to honor that. We're going to go ahead and do a full floor vote," Emmer said. "He knows we're probably going to have to go to court to enforce these anyway, so might as well eliminate any of the objections that they have."
Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, told Fox News Digital that Republicans were undertaking their vote because they recognize the gravity of impeachment proceedings.
NOTORIOUS MOBSTER STUNNED BY LATEST HUNTER BIDEN ALLEGATIONS: ‘MIND-BLOWING'
"We don't want to minimize what it means to have an impeachment, which I think is what the Democrats did. We want to be able to have that tool to be a significant tool to hold presidents accountable," she said. "We don't want it just to be a knee-jerk reaction."
Judiciary Committee member Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., said similarly, "I think the House Republicans will follow the facts where they lead… will make sure that we have the facts, and that we present the facts to the American people."
In a statement following the vote, Biden accused House Republicans of wasting time with political attacks and avoiding critical issues facing the nation.
"We have to address the situation at our southern border, and I am determined to try to fix the problem. We need funding to strengthen border security, but Republicans in Congress won’t act to help," he said.
Biden said he is also working to "make sure inflation keeps going down and job growth keeps going up" — but accused Congress of refusing to help him.
"Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies. Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts," he said.
The vote comes hours after Hunter Biden made a surprise appearance outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning.
He had been scheduled to appear for a closed-door deposition with the Oversight Committee, but instead he delivered a brief statement to reporters on his father’s professed innocence before departing Capitol Hill altogether.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, defended Hunter Biden on Wednesday amid criticism by Republicans after he refused to testify before lawmakers behind closed doors.
The president's son was subpoenaed to appear before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees. He instead held a press conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill in which he refused to sit for a deposition while declaring that his father was never involved in his business dealings.
Republicans have threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Ocasio-Cortez joined a press conference with fellow Democrats to criticize Republicans where she said Biden was attempting to comply with the subpoena.
"It’s also important to note, that not only is the committee not allowing Hunter Biden to testify publicly, but they have not called a single witness, a single first-hand witness to any of their allegations," she said. "They haven’t allowed anybody to testify publicly, because they do not have a single witness to any of their alleged allegations. They don’t."
"We have asked virtually every single person that has come to testify for this committee, ‘Have you seen, witnessed, participated, in a room, anything with first-hand testimony of any of what is being alleged?'" And every single witness that they have called before us has said, ‘No, I haven’t seen anything, didn’t hear anything, wasn’t party to anything," she added.
"So this is just story telling at this point."
During his press conference, Biden defended the president and said critics have "belittled my recovery, and they have tried to dehumanize me, all to embarrass my father, who has devoted his entire life to public service. For six years I have been a target of the unrelenting Trump attack team. ‘Where’s Hunter?’ Well, here’s my answer. I am here."
"My father was not financially involved in my business," he said, saying the elder Biden was not involved in his dealings with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, or his Chinese investments and others in the United States.
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Kentucky, and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said they would start proceedings to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress.
"Today, the House will vote on an impeachment inquiry resolution to strengthen our legal case in the courts as we face obstruction from the White House and witnesses," both lawmakers said in a joint statement. "Today’s obstruction by Hunter Biden reinforces the need for a formal vote. President Biden and his family must be held accountable for their corruption and obstruction. And we will provide that to the American people."
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday that President Biden and first lady Jill Biden were "proud" of their son, Hunter, despite his defiance of a subpoena to testify before Congress and his mounting legal issues.
"When it comes to the president and the first lady, they are proud of him continuing to rebuild his life. They are proud of their son," Jean-Pierre said when asked during the White House press briefing whether Biden had watched Hunter's press conference outside the U.S. Capitol earlier in the day announcing his decision not to comply with the subpoena issued by House Republicans.
"The president was certainly familiar with what his son was going to say. And I think what you saw was from the heart, from his son," she added.
SUPPORT FOR BIDEN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY GROWS WITH A NOTABLE LEVEL OF DEMOCRAT BACKING: POLL
When asked if Biden was okay with Hunter defying the subpoena, Jean-Pierre refused to "get into the specifics" surrounding the president's view.
She also wouldn't say the last time Biden and Hunter had spoken, noting those were "private" conversations.
Jean-Pierre was later pressed on Biden previously stating that people who defied congressional subpoenas should be prosecuted, comments he made in 2021 amid a probe into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, but she declined to comment.
"I don't have anything to add to what you have, what you just quoted me from the president. I just don't have anything to add," she said.
At his press conference Wednesday morning, Hunter offered to testify publicly before the House Oversight Committee, but declined to show for his scheduled closed-door deposition for which he was subpoenaed.
He maintained that his father "was not financially involved" in the business dealings for which House Republicans are investigating him, and said there was "no evidence because it did not happen."
In his statement, Hunter blasted "MAGA" Republicans who he said "invaded" his privacy, "attacked" his family and "ridiculed my struggle with addiction."
Hunter is also facing a number of federal charges in California after being indicted last week.
The nine charges allege a "four-year scheme" when he did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
President Biden ignored reporter questions on Wednesday shortly after his son, Hunter, defied a congressional subpoena regarding the family's business dealings.
The president's scheduled news conference before a meeting of his National Infrastructure Advisory Council was delayed for more than an hour Wednesday until Biden made an appearance, walking out to address members of the press gathered to hear the commander in chief speak from the White House.
Earlier in the day, Hunter Biden had arrived on Capitol Hill — not to comply with his subpoena and be deposed by the House Oversight Committee but instead to hold a press conference and again offer to testify publicly. He maintained that his father "was not financially involved" in his business, saying there is "no evidence because it did not happen."
At the White House, President Biden joked with the waiting press to "please say seated," before staying on script about this administration's infrastructure initiatives.
"Last year, I asked this council to ensure that resilience is built into all of our infrastructure projects, including critical sectors like energy, communications, transportation and health care. Together, you delivered, especially on these key challenges," Biden said. "Today, I'm looking forward to hearing about new projects this council will pursue in the coming years as well. So thank you all for being here. I'm just going to ask the press to step out so we can begin our briefing. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."
Fox News' Peter Doocy could be heard repeatedly shouting to Biden, "Mr. President, did you watch Hunter this morning?"
Over the sound of clamoring press, another reporter was heard asking, "Mr. President, should your son have defied the subpoena?"
Yet, Biden looked at the press and walked away from the podium.
Biden at the top of his brief remarks championed how two years ago he "signed into law a once-in a-generation investment in our nation's infrastructure and — to fix our roads, railroads, bridges, ports, airports, remove every single lead pipe in the country and extend high-speed internet, advance clean energy, and modernize the electric grid — energy grid."
"Already, we've announced over 40,000 projects in 4,500 communities all across our country. And when folks see these big projects in their hometowns, when they see the cranes up in the air, the shovels in the ground, I really think — coming from an area that was shut down, up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the steel mill in Claymont, Delaware — I think it brings them hope," Biden said. "Because it's not just about building an infrastructure. It's about building better infrastructure, stronger infrastructure, infrastructure to withstand 21st century challenges from climate change, cyberattacks to natural disasters to foreign threats, and so much more."
The House is expected to vote Wednesday on a resolution to formalize the Biden impeachment inquiry, as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republican leadership have accused the White House of "stonewalling" their investigations into the president's alleged involvement in his son Hunter's business dealings.
On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Hunter Biden railed against "MAGA" Republicans who have "invaded" his privacy, "attacked" his family and "ridiculed my struggle with addiction."
House Republicans say the Justice Department has refused to allow two attorneys to testify before the House Judiciary Committee. They claim the White House sent House Oversight and Accountability Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a letter saying they have no intention of complying with GOP subpoenas and requests for interviews without a formal vote, and the National Archives has withheld thousands of pages of documents and emails.
Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
The support for a possible House impeachment inquiry against President Biden is growing among the American public, with nearly a quarter of Democrats saying they would back such a move, a new poll has found.
According to the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Wednesday, 49% of U.S. adults say they would support the House of Representatives officially launching an impeachment inquiry into Biden amid allegations of corruption within his family, compared to 48% who would not.
That number is up from the same survey in October that found 47% supported such a move, and 52% would be opposed.
An impeachment inquiry is most notably supported by 24% of adults identifying as Democrats, although a majority (74%) would still be opposed.
The poll found that Biden's approval rating remains heavily underwater, with just 40% of adults approving of his job performance as president and 53% saying they did not approve.
That number is weighed down heavily by those identifying as independents, with just 36% approving of his job performance and 59% disapproving.
CALLS GROW FOR CONGRESS TO SUBPOENA JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S FLIGHT LOGS DESPITE DEMOCRAT ‘STONEWALLING’
Despite being a traditionally reliable Democrat voting bloc, younger voters' views of Biden also appear to be dragging him down, as just 39% of Gen Z and Millennial voters approve of his job performance, and 50% disapprove.
On favorability, Biden edges former President Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination, with 40% of adults saying they view Biden favorably compared to just 38% for Trump.
Among registered voters, 49% said they would vote for Biden if the 2024 presidential election were held today and 48% said they would vote for Trump.
Biden trails Trump among independent voters 45%-50%, but held a surprisingly slight edge among Gen Z and Millennial voters 52%-48%.
The poll also asked about a number of hot-button policies, including the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, border security, abortion and gender.
On funding for Ukraine amid its war with Russia and Israel for its war against Hamas, 36% said they oppose funding for either nation, and 32% said they support funding both. Sixteen percent said they support only funding Ukraine, and 15% only support funding for Israel.
Half of Americans said they would not support allowing any Palestinian refugees from Gaza into the U.S. while 47% said they would support such a move.
A majority of 54% support building a physical wall at the southern border and 45% said they do not.
On transgender issues, a majority of Americans (59%) said they believed whether a person is a man or woman is determined by the gender they were assigned at birth, while 38% said a person can be a man or woman even if it wasn't the gender they were assigned at birth.
When it came to abortion, most Americans (54%) said laws should be determined by individual states, rather than at the national level (43%).
If a national law were in place, an overwhelming 84% said they would support exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother, while 14% said they would support no exceptions.
On limitations, 21% said abortion should never be allowed, 18% said it should only be allowed in the first six weeks of pregnancy, 21% only in the first 15 weeks, 13% in the first 24 weeks, and 25% said a woman should be able to get an abortion at any point during a pregnancy.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said Hunter Biden made a "huge change" by saying his father, President Biden, was "not financially involved" in his business dealings.
Jordan's comments came shortly after Hunter Biden defied his subpoena by not appearing for a deposition before the House Oversight Committee, and instead, delivering a public statement defending himself and his family amid the House impeachment inquiry against his father.
"My father was not financially involved in my business," Hunter Biden said Wednesday morning from Capitol Hill, adding the president was not involved in his dealings with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, or his Chinese investments and others in the U.S.
"No evidence to support that my father was financially involved in my business because it did not happen," Hunter Biden said.
The White House and President Biden have maintained that the president was "never in business" with his son. Biden has also said he never spoke to his son about his business dealings, but Republicans say evidence — including email records and testimony from Hunter Biden's former business partners — seem to contradict those statements.
Jordan, shortly after Hunter Biden's public appearance, pointed out his changing narrative.
"I would just point out that I've had a chance to review what Hunter Biden said in his press conference. I think he made an interesting statement," Jordan said. "He said his father was not financially involved in the business. And I think that qualifier, the word ‘financially’ is important because once again, it shows another change in this story."
Jordan continued, "First, it was no involvement. Then no one ever, never talked to anyone, and then we find out about the dinners, the meetings, the phone calls, everything else."
"Now, it's okay, he wasn't involved in the business financially," Jordan continued. "I think that is important. It's one of the reasons we want to talk to Hunter Biden."
Jordan said the "biggest takeaway" from Hunter Biden's appearance was that statement about President Biden not being financially involved — which to Jordan indicates the elder Biden may have been involved in his son's business dealings in other ways.
"That is a huge change, which means — sort of means he's involved," Jordan said. "I think that's how anyone with common sense would read it."
Jordan described the change as indicating President Biden has "been involved, just not financially."
Jordan said that "is a huge departure from everything they've said now for the last three and a half years."
President Biden, dating back to August 2019 on the 2020 campaign trail, said he "never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period."
A month later, Biden said he had "never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings."
The next month, Biden said, "I don’t discuss business with my son."
This summer, however, the White House made a change, and began saying Biden was not "in business" with his son during his vice presidency.
"As we have said many times before, the president was not in business with his son," White House counsel’s office spokesperson Ian Sams said in a June 29 statement.
"The answer remains the same," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a July 24 briefing. "The president was never in business with his son. I just don’t have anything else to add."
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, Jordan, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith wrote a letter to White House Counsel Stuart Delery in July to seek clarity on the shifting message, but their July 27 deadline was ignored.
Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell in September said he can "categorically" declare that the elder Biden was not involved in his son's previous business dealings and did not profit from any of them.
"I can tell you that Hunter did not share his business with his dad," Lowell told CNN in September. "I can tell you that he did not share money from his businesses with his dad. And as the evidence out there, his dad, like all good parents, tried to help Hunter when Hunter needed that help."
Meanwhile, Comer and Jordan last week threatened to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress if he defied the subpoena and failed to appear for his deposition.
Comer and Jordan had vowed to release the full transcript of Hunter Biden's deposition if he did participate. They also vowed to then schedule a public hearing for the president's son to testify in a setting for the American people to hear from him directly.
HUNTER BIDEN MAY BE HELD IN CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS IF HE DOESN'T SHOW UP FOR INTERVIEW
Meanwhile, Comer and Jordan spoke to reporters, defending their "lawful subpoena of the president's son."
"This is a normal process in an investigation," Comer said. "This has been a serious investigation since day one — an investigation about public corruption at the highest level."
Comer said he still expects to depose the president's son.
"And then we will be more than happy to have a public hearing," Comer said.
Jordan said if a public hearing took place first, as suggested by the first son, members would filibuster and delay lines of questioning.
"The way you get the facts is you bring people in for an interview behind closed doors," Jordan said.
Lowell and the White House have argued that the subpoena was not valid because the House impeachment inquiry was never formalized by the full House of Representatives.
However, a vote to do so is expected later Wednesday.
"We think it is going to pass," Jordan said. "We'll see what their excuse is then."
However, Jordan did say that once that vote takes place, he and Comer will, as promised, "move forward with contempt proceedings" against the first son.
Comer said that the committee has tens of thousands of documents prepared in the room where Hunter Biden was expected to testify.
Comer said the committee has "specific questions for the president's son," and said the American people want this investigation.