It's still a bit of a mystery as to how exactly newly-minted House Speaker Mike Johnson will handle the upcoming budget battles, but on Joe Biden's corruption, he's already making himself clear.
While speaking to Fox News Digital, Johnson laid into the president's alleged corruption surrounding his family's influence-peddling operation, calling it an "ongoing cover-up" and directly accusing Biden of lying "repeatedly." Johnson said:
We have an ongoing cover-up of the important facts as Joseph Biden is sitting in the Oval Office. We know that he stared right into the camera as the president and lied repeatedly—I mean, multiple times—he lied directly multiple times about his involvement and knowledge of his son’s business dealings. We all know that now.
The president's story regarding his knowledge of his son's business dealings has dramatically changed over the last year. As far back as 2020, he was insisting that he had not ever spoken to his son about business nor that anyone in his family had taken money from China. Of course, that was always contradictory. How could he know what money his family had made from China, if he had no knowledge of the dealings in the first place? Ultimately, both claims were proven false.
So, the question Johnson and most intellectually honest people are asking is why Biden lied. Why continually repeat a falsehood that he had no knowledge of the business dealings if they were all above board? The most logical answer is that they weren't all above board. Why did Biden appear on business phone calls at least 20 times? Why did he receive a $200,000 check from his brother as a "loan repayment" when there's no evidence such a loan ever existed? There are many other connections as well.
In his comments, Johnson also specifically mentioned bribery as a possible impeachment charge.
Johnson said he believes there is "an overwhelming amount of evidence, and that seems to indicate that he was involved and that they did know about this, and that the family did benefit from it."
"I think we might be arguing about high crimes and misdemeanors, but I’m not so certain bribery is not involved in some way here, either," Johnson said. "And of course, bribery is specifically listed in the Constitution, and so we have an obligation to pursue it."
Still, the pace of the investigation is likely to wear on some Republican voters who are looking for accountability. Johnson gave assurances that things were being done in a methodical way on purpose, so that any final push for impeachment couldn't be easily scuttled. Having only a four-seat majority means the GOP has to be very careful to not lose swing-district members in a final vote.
With that said, this can't simply drag on forever. Members will be deep into their reelection campaigns by the summer. Waiting that long would likely mean an end to any real chance at impeachment, especially with so many judicial shenanigans going on with redistricting. It is now very possible Republicans will lose the House in 2024. The time to strike is the next few months.