House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden kicked off Thursday as they and Democrats clashed over whether there is evidence linking the president to wrongdoing.

The House Oversight Committee held the first hearing since Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced earlier this month he was opening the inquiry. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the committee’s chairman, began the hearing by insisting the panel has “uncovered a mountain of evidence revealing how Joe Biden abused his public office for his family's financial gain” and “lied to the American people about his knowledge of and participation in his family's corrupt business schemes.”

Comer claimed Joe Biden, as vice president, “spoke, dined and developed relationships with his family's foreign business targets.” 

House Republicans have claimed Joe Biden has been directly involved in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business affairs, but they have not yet produced any solid evidence proving the elder Biden profited from his son’s business deals or that Hunter Biden’s professional interests influenced his father’s actions as vice president in the Obama administration. 

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

However, Jason Smith, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which is also investigating the president, said at Thursday’s hearing that evidence suggests Joe Biden “was not just aware of his son's business dealings, but he was connected to them.” He suggested then-Vice President Biden played a role in Hunter Biden’s appointment to the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings and claimed Joe Biden used Air Force Two to transport Hunter Biden and a business associate to Mexico City in 2016, among other allegations.

“Whether it was lunches, phone calls, White House meetings or official foreign trips, Hunter Biden cashed in by arranging access to Joe Biden, the family brand,” Smith said. “The Biden family and their associates received millions in payments from foreign sources, including from Russia, China, Ukraine, Romania.”

But Jamie Raskin, the top-ranking Democrat on the committee, insisted there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden and attacked House Republicans for pursuing the impeachment inquiry as the federal government moves closer to a partial shutdown this weekend unless Congress passes a spending measure.

“We're 62 hours away from shutting down the government of the United States of America,” said Raskin, D-Md. “And Republicans are launching an impeachment drive based on a long debunked and discredited lie.

“If the Republicans had a smoking gun, or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today, but they've got nothing on Joe Biden,” Raskin said.

The Maryland congressman also argued, citing social media posts by former President Donald Trump, that Republicans’ true motivation for the inquiry was retribution for Trump’s two impeachments. And Raskin and other Democrats suggested the proceedings aimed to distract the public from the more than 90 criminal charges Trump is facing. 

Raskin opened his remarks by arguing that, because the full House did not authorize the impeachment inquiry, the proceedings violate House rules barring members from disparaging the president. 

Raskin also called a motion to subpoena Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian businessman who was instrumental in Trump’s and Giuliani’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, which led to Trump’s first impeachment. Parnas wrote a letter to Comer in July claiming “the narrative you are seeking for this investigation has been proven false many times over, by a wide array of respected sources” and urging the Oversight Committee chairman to “abandon this effort to investigate the Bidens.”

“This is the subpoena of the two key figures,” Raskin said.

“Key figures for what?” Comer fired back.

“In your theory about why President Biden should be impeached,” Raskin responded. 

On a party-line vote, Republicans voted to table Raskin’s motion.

Four witnesses testified at the hearing, none of whom have any direct knowledge about the allegations. They were forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky; former Assistant Attorney General Eileen O’Connor, who worked in the Justice Department Tax Division; George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley; and University of North Carolina law professor Michael Gerhardt. 

“By opening an impeachment inquiry, our investigation is now focused on whether President Biden engaged in impeachable offenses under the U.S. Constitution,” Comer said. “It empowers Congress, elected by the people, to continue providing the answers, transparency and accountability that the American people deserve.”

None of the witnesses said they have seen evidence proving Joe Biden has committed impeachable offenses. 

“I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment. That is something that an inquiry has to establish,” Turley said, but adding, “I also do believe that the House has passed the threshold for an impeachment inquiry into the conduct of President Biden.”

Turley cited false statements made by the president about his son’s business deals, an alleged influence peddling scheme in which Joe Biden was the focus and the possibility that the president himself might have profited millions of dollars from it. 

Dubinsky acknowledged that “much more information is still needed in order to be able to answer these questions and make a final determination as to whether or not the Biden family and its associates, businesses were involved in any improper or illicit activities and, importantly, whether those activities, if any, were connected to President Joe Biden.”

And Gerhardt, the lone witness called by Democrats, said the proceedings should have “evidence of the commission of treason, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors.”

“There is not — at least not that I've yet heard — such credible evidence,” he said.

Gerhardt said he has a “fear” about the proceedings. “Hunter Biden is arrested for speeding in a car owned by his father, and the police go after the father,” he said. “I don't think that's how the law should work. I don't think that's how impeachment should work.”

Democrats compared Hunter Biden’s situation with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who served as a senior adviser in the Trump administration and secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud shortly after his father-in-law’s presidency ended. 

“Would it be fair to attribute all of that to Donald Trump because it's his son-on-law?” Raskin said.

O’Connor focused on testimony from IRS whistleblowers who alleged the Justice Department impeded an investigation into Hunter Biden. She noted Gary Shapley, a supervisory special agent who worked on the Hunter Biden case, testified that David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney leading the investigation, told him last year he did not have full authority in the case, contradicting public statements by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Weiss, however, has disputed the whistleblower’s claims in multiple letters to Congress. Garland elevated Weiss to special counsel last month at the prosecutor’s request.

Republicans continued throughout the hearing to try to link both Joe and Hunter Biden to misconduct. 

For example, Comer said two bank wire transfers reveal Hunter Biden received payments originating from Chinese nationals in 2019, when Joe Biden was running for president, and that Joe Biden’s home address in Wilmington, Delaware, was listed as the beneficiary address on both transactions.

Comer himself, however, had previously acknowledged the younger Biden used the address on his driver’s license the year before. Hunter Biden’s attorney said this week his client made a “substantial investment” in Bohai Harvest Rosemont Partners, a Chinese private equity firm, and that in 2019 he borrowed funds using his equity as security, a claim Comer said he was skeptical of because he has not seen documentation of loan terms.

And Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, claimed the the Biden Justice Department has tried to sweep wrongdoing “under the rug” by allowing statutes of limitations to expire on potential tax crimes in years Hunter Biden was paid by Burisma and by ordering the removal of all mentions of Joe Biden from a search warrant, although the latter was alleged to have happened during the Trump administration.

Comer ended Thursday's hearing by announcing that he will be issuing subpoenas to Hunter and James Biden for their personal and business bank records.

The White House issued a statement in response to the hearing saying time is running out “until the government shuts down because of extreme House Republicans’ chaos and inability to govern. The consequences for the American people will be very damaging – from lost jobs, to troops working without pay, to jeopardizing important efforts to fight fentanyl, provide food assistance, and more. Nothing can distract from that.”

"Today, House Republicans wasted hours peddling debunked lies, even as their own witnesses admitted there is no evidence that merits this baseless stunt," said White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations Sharon Yang. "This flop was a failed effort to distract from their own chaos and inability to govern that is careening the country towards an unnecessary government shutdown that will hurt American families.

“Congressional Republicans have also made clear that this fact-free stunt will continue even if the government shuts down because they believe these partisan political attacks are more important than ensuring our troops get paid, funding efforts to fight fentanyl trafficking, making sure kids and infants have access to food assistance, and more," Yang continued. "President Biden will always stay focused on the priorities of the American people – not these political games House Republicans have chosen to pursue instead of doing their jobs."