The Republican-led House Oversight Committee plans to hold its first hearing related to the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden next week, a spokesman for the panel confirmed.
The newly announced hearing is the first major action taken since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last week announced the impeachment inquiry focused on Biden's alleged connections to his son's business dealings, bypassing a formal vote on the matter. Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who chairs the Oversight panel, was tapped by McCarthy to lead the impeachment inquiry.
The hearing, set for next Thursday, Sept. 28, will "focus on constitutional and legal questions surrounding the President’s involvement in corruption and abuse of public office."
A spokesperson for the panel said that lawmakers intend to subpoena the personal and business bank records of President Joe Biden's son Hunter and brother James "as early as this week."
In a statement Tuesday, the White House called the hearing a "political stunt" taking place just days before a possible government shutdown.
"Extreme House Republicans are already telegraphing their plans to try to distract from their own chaotic inability to govern and the impacts of it on the country," said Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, in the statement. "Staging a political stunt hearing in the waning days before they may shut down the government reveals their true priorities: to them, baseless personal attacks on President Biden are more important than preventing a government shutdown and the pain it would inflict on American families.
"Their shutdown would hurt our economy and national security, furlough thousands of federal workers, and jeopardize everything from troop pay to disaster relief to efforts to fight fentanyl," Sams continued. "They are clearly hoping they can use their baseless, evidence-free impeachment stunt to try to divert attention away from the consequences of their extreme agenda, including their current funding proposal to slash tens of thousands of preschool slots nationwide and eliminate thousands of law enforcement jobs.
"The President has been very clear: he is going to remain focused on the issues that matter to the American people, including preventing the devastating and harmful cuts proposed by House Republicans that are hurtling us toward a government shutdown," he added. "House Republicans should drop these silly political Washington games and actually do their job to prevent a government shutdown."
The Biden administration has repeatedly railed against the impeachment inquiry, charging that House Republicans have found no evidence after nine months of investigations, and calling on news outlets to step up their scrutiny on the GOP “for opening up an impeachment inquiry based on lies.”
"It's clear that the extreme far-right made a demand to open a baseless impeachment inquiry simply to continue their disproven and baseless attacks on the president," said Sams in an interview with Spectrum News last week.
McCarthy called the impeachment inquiry a “logical” next step which “will allow our committees to gather all the facts and provide answers for the American people,” but so far House Republican investigators have not produced evidence linking Hunter Biden’s business dealings to his father — a fact that the White House is quick to point out that some Republicans have said themselves.
But it's unclear if Republicans have the votes to launch a formal impeachment at this juncture – and Democrats control the Senate by one vote, making a conviction unlikely.