The White House on Monday accused House Republicans of using a possible impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Merrick Garland as a distraction from their lack of a positive agenda for Americans.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Sunday said that political bias and "weaponization" of the Department of Justice, allegations fueled by IRS whistleblowers' claims about tax crime investigations into President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, are the reasons why an impeachment inquiry could be launched.
"Speaker McCarthy and the extreme House Republicans are proving they have no positive agenda to actually help the American people on the issues most important to them and their families," Ian Sams, the White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, said in a statement obtained by The Hill.
Sams said McCarthy's proposal of an impeachment inquiry is a political stunt.
"Perhaps congressional Republicans are desperate to distract from their own plan to give even more tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations and add more than $3 trillion to the deficit," Sams said, "but instead of pushing more partisan stunts intended only to get themselves attention on the far right, they should work with the president to actually put the middle class and working Americans first and expand the historic progress to lower costs, create jobs, boost U.S. manufacturing and small businesses, and make prescription drugs more affordable."
Last Thursday, members of the House Ways and Means Committee released redacted transcripts of whistleblower testimony from two IRS employees who, after working on Hunter Biden's tax evasion case, reported misconduct and government abuse from the DOJ and FBI. Garland denied the whistleblowers' claims, and he and the president have defended the integrity of the department.
Hunter Biden last week pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses and admitted to illegally possessing a weapon after his 2018 purchase of a handgun. As part of that admission, he agreed to enter a diversion program, and if he meets the conditions of the program, the gun charge would be removed from his record.
No U.S. attorney general has ever been impeached, and only one, Harry Daugherty, faced an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee in 1922 over rumors of corruption during Warren Harding's administration. However, no articles of impeachment were filed with the House.
Daugherty was asked to resign by President Calvin Coolidge in 1924, after he refused to allow access to DOJ records to a congressional committee investigating charges of wrongdoing by Harding's associates.