White House responds to House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry against Biden

Amna Nawaz:

After House Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed Republicans to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Biden yesterday, the White House is urging a more aggressive pushback to the GOP and is dismissing the effort as — quote — "extreme politics at its worst."

That description came from Ian Sams, a White House adviser working on congressional investigations. And he joins me now.

Ian, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Ian Sams, White House Spokesman for Oversight and Investigations: Thanks.

Amna Nawaz:

So you have heard the Republican justification for this inquiry. Despite a lack of public evidence and no floor vote, as Speaker McCarthy had promised, they say this allows committees to coordinate investigations, gives them greater standing to get documents that they are seeking, and they're using it as an investigative tool.

So what does the White House say to that?

Ian Sams:

Look, I think that Speaker McCarthy is dealing with a far right group of his caucus, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who demanded that he open an impeachment inquiry, or else she would shut down the government.

I think that they have made it very clear that this is a far right, politically motivated exercise, rather than any sort of real attempt to get to the truth or the facts. As you just noted, they have been investigating the president for eight months now, and time after time after time, they have come up with no evidence of any wrongdoing.

And why haven't they come up with any evidence of wrongdoing? Because there is no evidence of wrongdoing. The president did nothing wrong. They keep turning this up over and over again. Their own witnesses have testified to that. Their own documents that they have received have testified to that.

And so this is clearly a politically motivated stunt to try to attack President Biden over nothing, to abuse what is supposed to be a really grave constitutional process, impeachment, for high crimes and misdemeanors as a last resort by the Constitution to sort of hold people in power accountable. They're politicizing it and trivializing it.

And I think that what the American people are going to see here is a president who's focused on what they care about today, a quarter-billion-dollar investment in cancer research, versus what the House Republicans care about, which is just more nasty, false political attacks against the president.

Amna Nawaz:

Well, Ian, the Republicans will say they're not done gathering their information. And they are now seeking bank and credit card statements. Speaker McCarthy listed that specifically.

Has the Oversight Committee or anyone else requested those documents from the White House? And will the White House comply with any subpoenas?

Ian Sams:

They haven't.

And so this is — you're actually hitting the nail on the head of an interesting point of this. They claim that there's somehow a lack of cooperation. But, just a month ago, James Comer went on FOX Business Network and said, everything I have requested via subpoena, as the chairman of the Oversight Committee, I have gotten 100 percent of what I have asked for, including from our administration.

And so it raises the question of, why do they even need to do this? They haven't even turned up any evidence, and they have tools at their disposal to get it. And it's because there is no evidence. It's because this is a baseless stunt to try to go after the president.

I don't want to speculate about what they may or may not ask for. It's been 24 hours since they opened this impeachment inquiry. But they have made no sort of explanation of what it's about. They have outlined no impeachable offenses they're investigating. It's just a fishing expedition.

Amna Nawaz:

Ian…

Ian Sams:

They just want to go on a wild goose chase to attack him. And so I don't want to speculate about what they may or may not ask for, when he won't even explain how this is going to work.

Amna Nawaz:

Understood.

I do want to ask, though, because these concerns, the issues they're raising, there are Americans who have expressed some of these same concerns. I mean, you have seen these numbers. You have seen the polls when people are asked about the president's involvement in his son Hunter Biden's business dealings. A recent CNN poll showed some 61 percent of people said that then-Vice President Biden had — quote, unquote — "some involvement" in Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and China.

That's what they believed. And it's not just Republicans, right? It was 64 percent of independents who believe that. Among those independents, 61 percent also believed the actions were illegal; 37 percent of independents think the actions were unethical, but not illegal.

So how do Americans go about getting those concerns addressed?

Ian Sams:

I think that things like what you just said really show that there's a real premium that's put on the truth.

I think it's incumbent upon the independent media, it's incumbent upon us to explain to the public the truth. And the truth is that the president was never in business with his family and that these lies and false attacks that are coming from Republicans, with no evidence, no evidence to back them up, are in fact lies.

And the public needs to understand that. I think that there needs to be more scrutiny on these claims that are being made by House Republicans that are feeding this perception, which is driven by conservatives and Republicans. As you mentioned, in that poll, when Republicans in that poll, 90 percent of them express a belief in something, it raises questions about where they're getting their information from and what information they're getting, which is why it's so much…

(CROSSTALK)

Amna Nawaz:

It's also, Ian, I should point out — pardon the introduction — a majority of independents there.

I do want to ask about the skepticism, though, because there are even moderate Republicans who have expressed some skepticism about the process. Has the White House been in touch with any of them or any of the 18 House Republicans who represent districts that Mr. Biden won in 2020?

Ian Sams:

Well, you're exactly right that moderate Republicans have come out and said there's no evidence, it doesn't exist, we don't know why we're moving to an impeachment inquiry when they haven't laid out any evidence implicating the president in any wrongdoing.

Those are moderate Republicans. It sort of explains why the speaker avoided having a vote, to try to not lose a vote, because a bipartisan majority of the House clearly opposed taking on an impeachment over nothing. And so I think that, as this process moves forward, those Republicans in Congress who are driving this exercise are going to have to explain why they want to lurch the Congress and the country into an impeachment without evidence, instead of focusing on the real issues that Americans want to see their leaders in Washington focusing on.

The president's going to keep focused on that. The House Republicans are going to do what the House Republicans want to do. But the president has a lot of priorities for the American people. He's talking about the economy tomorrow.

I think that these are the things that the public really wants leaders to be focused on, not these sort of far right political sideshows.

Amna Nawaz:

That is the White House adviser working on congressional investigations Ian Sams joining us tonight.

Ian, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.

Ian Sams:

Thank you.