House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., predicted Monday night that House investigations into the Biden family's foreign business dealings will lead to an impeachment inquiry.

On Tuesday, McCarthy defended his interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, saying that an impeachment inquiry “allows Congress to get the information to be able to know the truth.”

In his interview Monday with Hannity, McCarthy cited millions of dollars in payments allegedly made to the Bidens from Ukrainian and Romanian nationals and IRS whistleblowers’ claims that President Joe Biden’s son Hunter received special treatment in the Justice Department’s investigation into him. 

“We've only followed where the information has taken us, but this is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy also accused the Biden administration of working to deny Congress its ability to conduct oversight.

“I believe we will follow this all the way to the end, and this is going to rise to an impeachment inquiry the way the Constitution tells us to do this,” McCarthy said. “And we have to get the answers to these questions.”

McCarthy did not offer any timeline. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, McCarthy sought to clarify his comments by saying that he "wasn’t announcing" any specific inquiry into the president, saying that questions raised by the House GOP need to be answered.

"I simply said that the actions that I’m seeing by this administration, withholding the agencies from being able to work with us, that would rise to the level of an impeachment inquiry," the California Republican said.

McCarthy did acknowledge that House Republican-led probes have not found or proved any wrongdoing, but added that an impeachment inquiry “allows Congress to get the information to be able to know the truth.”

"When more of this continues to unravel, it rises to the level of impeachment inquiry, where you would have the Congress to have the power to get to all these answers," he said.

He struck a similar tone in a Twitter post later Tuesday, writing in part: "If evidence continues to rise to the level of an impeachment inquiry, House Republicans will act.”

An impeachment inquiry is the beginning of the impeachment process. If the committee set by Congress to investigate the matter recommends charges, it would then be up to McCarthy to decide whether to move the matter forward. Charges would go to the Judiciary Committee, then to the House floor for a vote on impeachment.

Speaking to Spectrum News on Wednesday, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, said that any impeachment proceeding against the president "is a decision the entire conference has to make, and it's got to be driven by the facts, it's got to be driven by our constitutional duty."

"I think the Speaker has been clear if in fact, the information we're gathering the facts we're gathering compels us to go there, then he's willing to go there," Jordan added.

Jordan charged that "when it comes to the president, there's lots of facts that are piling up," but added that GOP investigators still have work ahead of them.

"Lots of, I think, work we got to do, but the facts keep piling up," the Ohio Republican said. "That's a decision the conference will make at the right time."

House Republicans have been aggressively investigating the Bidens’ foreign business dealings — much of it focused on Hunter Biden — since taking the majority in January. They have claimed Joe Biden was directly involved when he was vice president and while he was out of office, but they have not produced any solid evidence linking him.

Joe Biden has repeatedly denied having any involvement in or knowledge about Hunter Biden’s business affairs, and the White House has accused House Republicans of promoting baseless conspiracy theories.

White House spokesman Ian Sams tweeted Monday night in response to the McCarthy interview: “Instead of focusing on the real issues Americans want us to address like continuing to lower inflation or create jobs, this is what the @HouseGOP wants to prioritize. Their eagerness to go after @POTUS regardless of the truth is seemingly bottomless.”

Last month, Hunter Biden and the Justice Department reached a deal in which the president’s son will plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and agree to terms allowing him to avoid prosecution on a gun charge. GOP lawmakers have accused the Justice Department of giving Hunter Biden a “sweetheart deal.”

Two IRS whistleblowers who investigated the case have testified on Capitol Hill that federal prosecutors deviated from normal procedures. They also allege that David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney leading the probe, claimed privately he did not have the final say in bringing charges.

But Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland have insisted Weiss alone had complete authority to make charging decisions in the case. On Monday, the Justice Department offered to make Weiss available for public testimony. 

Todd Belt, a professor and Political Management Program Director at George Washington University, told Spectrum News that McCarthy’s new stance has only one reason behind it: he’s trying to “save his speakership” from angry, far-right members of the Republican caucus.

“He irritated them earlier when he made his deal with Joe Biden, and he wants to make sure he stays in their good graces,” Belt said. An investigation, he said, gives McCarthy “political cover” in case he opts to not move forward with an impeachment. “He can say, well, these people said we don’t have the evidence to do it. It’s not me, it’s them.”

House Republicans also have been focused on an allegation made by an FBI informant that an executive with the Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings paid Joe and Hunter Biden $5 million each in an effort to have Ukraine’s prosecutor general fired and kill a corruption investigation into Burisma.

The FBI has stressed that claims made in forms such as the one used by the informant are “unverified” and “incomplete.” Congressional Republicans have pressed the FBI for information about the investigative steps it has taken in response to the claims.

Joe Biden called the accusation “a bunch of malarkey.”

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Calif., agreed, noting that McCarthy hasn’t committed to an investigation, but that ”he should be committed,” she said, with a tone that suggested he take a vacation to an institution with padded walls.

“I think it’s hooey. I think this is a distraction so that we are not talking about the things that Americans care about, like the fact that crime is down, consumer sentiment is up,” Kamlager-Dove said.

McCarthy’s comments signal a reversal in his views on potentially impeaching Joe Biden. In June, McCarthy reportedly urged Republicans to vote against a privileged motion by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., that would have forced members to vote on impeaching the president. The House instead voted to send the resolution to committee. 

Some Republican lawmakers have also called for Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached.

A Morning Consult poll last month found that 30% of voters — and 55% of Republicans — believe determining whether Joe Biden should be impeached should be a “top priority” for Congress.

Meanwhile, according to multiple reports, McCarthy has promised former President Donald Trump a House vote on expunging his two impeachments. 

That, Belt suggested, is not coincidental. “Impeachment is in the air, priors and futures, and I think this all has to do with trying to get in the good graces of President Trump, who many think will be the nominee going forward,” he said. “A lot of members of Congress don’t want to get on the wrong side of him. They saw what happened to people who do.”

Kamlager-Dove, for one, welcomed the idea.

”No one wants us to be doing this on the House floor. And if he does bring up the expungement vote, which I hope he does, it will put vulnerable Republicans in greater jeopardy,” Kamlager-Dove said. ”So as we move to 2024, I say, let's do that all the time, so that we can take back the House and get back to the business of having adults run Congress.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.