White House declines invite for Biden to testify in House Oversight impeachment inquiry

The White House informed House Oversight Chair James Comer that President Joe Biden will not accept his invitation to testify in a committee impeachment inquiry hearing, according to a letter obtained first by CNN, further insulting the Republican-led effort.

The White House informed House Oversight Chair James Comer that President Joe Biden will not accept his invitation to testify in a committee impeachment inquiry hearing, according to a letter obtained first by CNN, further insulting the Republican-led effort. “Your impeachment investigation is over,” Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber wrote to Comer on Monday. “We decline your invitation for President Biden to testify.” In the letter, Sauber said that the president “has done nothing wrong” and accused Comer of peddling “false and unsupported allegations.” In a statement to CNN, Comer criticized Biden for declining to testify publicly and called on the president to answer questions that accompanied the hearing invitation. Comer’s statement did not address whether he plans to take any further steps now that Biden has declined. “It is unfortunate President Biden is unwilling to answer questions before the American people and refuses to answer the very simple, straightforward questions we included in the invitation,” Comer said in the statement. House Republicans have not uncovered evidence of wrongdoing by the president and currently do not have the votes in the House to impeach him given their narrow, divided majority. As a result, the impeachment inquiry appears stalled as Republicans lack consensus on how or when to end their investigation.