Republicans make last-ditch request for Biden to testify as impeachment inquiry winds down

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is all but winding down, lacking the political appetite from within the Republican ranks to go forward with an actual impeachment, but facing political pressure to deliver after months of work. The chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, Republican Rep. James Comer, made a last-ditch push at Wednesday’s hearing, announcing he will seek testimony from Biden himself, saying the Democratic president was either “complicit or incompetent” in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings. It’s highly unlikely Biden would appear before the committee.

“We need to hear from the president himself,” Comer said at the close of the nearly eight-hour hearing. The White House told Republicans to “move on” and focus on “real issues” Americans want addressed.

“This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment,” spokesman Ian Sams said. “Call it a day, pal.”

Having produced with no hard evidence of presidential wrongdoing it’s clear the lengthy GOP impeachment inquiry is all but coming to a close. Seeking testimony from the president is a possible final act. Rather than drawing up articles of impeachment against Biden, Comer is eyeing potential criminal referrals of the family to the Justice Department, a largely symbolic move. The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said the Republicans have turned the investigation into a “laughing stock” and the “comedy of errors” of the Biden impeachment inquiry is finally “crashing to an end.”

Republicans launched their early investigations into the president after taking control of the House last year, eager to hold Biden to the high bar of impeachment.

The House, under a Democratic majority, had twice impeached Republican Donald Trump during his presidency. As Trump and Biden face another likely rematch this November, the probe is grinding on drilling into Hunter Biden’s often complicated business dealings and troubled personal life, particularly during the years before Joe Biden became president.

The committee asserts that the Bidens traded on the family name, an alleged influence-peddling scheme in which Republicans are trying to link a handful of phone calls or dinner meetings between Joe Biden, when he was vice president or out of office, and Hunter Biden and his business associates. Hunter Biden, who is facing firearm and tax charges in separate matters, testified behind closed doors last month in a deposition that filled more than 200 pages but left Comer’s committee without evidence rising to “high crimes and misdemeanors” that would be expected to impeach a president.

“My father’s never been involved with my business,” Hunter Biden testified...