Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wants Congress to start the impeachment process of President Joe Biden over allegations federal authorities intervened in an investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, and gave him “preferential treatment.”
Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, addressed the case during an appearance on Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” Thursday, discussing a summary of text messages released last week by the House Ways and Means Committee as part of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower’s testimony.
“I hate to play tit-for-tat over this thing, but isn’t this enough or more than enough to start an impeachment?” Fox News host Greg Guteld asked. “Why can’t they start impeachment right now?”
Haley responded that Congress “absolutely should” impeach Biden. “Why doesn’t the media force him to get up and answer questions about it? If this were any other president, truly, think about it, they would have to be standing at a podium answering questions from the press on what did you know, when did you know it, how did you know it?” she added.
Asa Hutchinson, a Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Arkansas, disagreed with Haley Friday, saying impeachment “should not be used as a political weapon.”
“While the whistleblower allegations are serious and must be investigated, impeachment should not be an option until the investigation shows corrupt action by the president,” Hutchinson said in a statement, according to Fox News. “Impeachment should not be used as a political weapon but reserved for serious wrongdoing. The facts should determine what action, if any, Congress should take, and impeachment should not precede a thorough investigation.”
A White House reporter questioned Biden on Wednesday, asking the president if he had any involvement in his son’s alleged WhatsApp text messages to a Chinese businessman. Biden has denied any involvement in connection to the case.
“How involved were you in your son’s Chinese shakedown text message?” a New York Post reporter asked the president as he departed for a day trip to Chicago, Illinois.
“No I wasn’t and I don’t,” Biden responded, later shouting, “No,” when the reporter asked again.
Scrutiny on Attorney General
A spokesperson for Haley’s campaign reiterated the former U.N. ambassador’s position on Friday.
“Nikki believes Congress needs to get to the bottom of whether Joe Biden committed crimes or other impeachable offenses since the Justice Department refuses to do it. That process starts with a Congressional oversight investigation,” Ken Farnaso said in a statement.
Haley also discussed the matter in an interview with The Epoch Times in New Hampshire on June 28, saying Biden isn’t the only official who “got a lot to answer for.” She said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray should answer the same questions.
“First of all, Biden, I think that he’s got a lot to answer for. The fact that he hasn’t done a press conference to acknowledge all the Hunter Biden stuff is irresponsible at best, and he needs to answer that, but it smells bad … I think Congress should open up an investigation on Biden and find out exactly what was taken, what was done in return, if anything, and how much Biden knew,” Haley said.
“In terms of Merrick Garland, I mean, look—[the Department of Justice] got weaponized under his watch, so he’s got some serious questions to answer as well, and I think they need to do an investigation on him,” she added. “Christopher Wray needs to answer the same questions—all of these people. The American people don’t trust what they’ve done. They all owe it to answer as many questions as possible to let us know how we got to this point, and there’s got to be accountability. We can’t just let this go.”
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanors for intentionally failing to pay his federal income tax. He was also charged with a felony firearms offense for unlawful possession of a firearm as an illicit drug user, but he will enter a pretrial diversion program in an attempt to avoid conviction on that charge.
Haley’s remarks come after IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley, a 14-year veteran of the agency, stepped forward to testify following Hunter Biden’s guilty plea. Shapley alleged that as an IRS investigator, he was able to authenticate a WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden demanded payment from Chinese officials. In the text, Hunter Biden highlighted that his father was in the room with him by way of a threat.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” he wrote, and expressed the wish to “resolve this before it got out of hand.”
Here is that text: pic.twitter.com/51rbUaur4X
— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) June 24, 2023
‘Complete Fakes’
On Friday, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell accused House Republicans of undermining the law and engaging in a misinformation campaign to harm Hunter and attack his father. The White House has also denied any interference in the DOJ’s investigation of the president’s son.
In a 10-page letter addressed to Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, Lowell claimed images of Hunter’s Whatsapp messages, which Smith shared on Twitter as evidence, are “complete fakes.”
The images appear to be a graphical recreation of how the texts might appear on a phone. The messages themselves were recovered from a backup of Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and were not actual screengrabs taken from a phone.
Lowell denied in his letter that the senior Biden was present when the alleged message was sent on July 30, 2017. He also claimed the message was not sent to “an official of CEFC (China Energy)” but to someone else.
A lawyer for Shapley rejected Lowell’s claims, saying they are an attempt to “intimidate our client and the oversight authorities scrutinizing the politicization of that case is no surprise.”
Epoch Times reporter Caden Pearson contributed to this report.