WASHINGTON — As House Republicans cost ahead with an effort to question President Joe Biden, the White House is arguing that they’re utilizing the probe as a stunt to evade accountability over a possible government shutdown. 

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday announced it will maintain its first impeachment listening to on Sept. 28, days earlier than the federal government is ready to close down if Congress does not move a funding bill. Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., additionally stated that his committee plans to subpoena private and enterprise financial institution data courting again to Biden’s time as vice chairman and belonging to his son Hunter and brother James, as nicely as testimony from individuals who declare the Biden household cast corrupt international enterprise offers.

White House officers say that the president’s technique for now’s to let Republicans decide how they plan to maneuver ahead. But till that occurs, officers stated, there is no such thing as a position for the White House.

The technique is aimed toward making an attempt to verify Americans see Republicans who’re embroiled in impeachment proceedings as accountable for the potential fallout.

To that finish, officers have made the case that the president struck a budget agreement with Republicans earlier this yr, one which outlined a spending path ahead. Republican lawmakers are actually strolling away from that, they stated.

In response to Tuesday’s listening to announcement, the White House slammed Republicans and accused them of “staging a political stunt” to divert consideration from an effort to slash spending. 

The timing of the listening to “reveals their true priorities,” with funding cuts that will furlough employees and jeopardize army salaries, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, Ian Sams, stated of Republicans.

“Extreme House Republicans are already telegraphing their plans to try to distract from their own chaotic inability to govern and the impacts of it on the country,” Sams stated in a assertion. “Staging a political stunt hearing in the waning days before they may shut down the government reveals their true priorities: to them, baseless personal attacks on President Biden are more important than preventing a government shutdown and the pain it would inflict on American families.” 

Sams continued: “Their shutdown would hurt our economy and national security, furlough thousands of federal workers, and jeopardize everything from troop pay to disaster relief to efforts to fight fentanyl. They are clearly hoping they can use their baseless, evidence-free impeachment stunt to try to divert attention away from the consequences of their extreme agenda, including their current funding proposal to slash tens of thousands of preschool slots nationwide and eliminate thousands of law enforcement jobs.”

Sams stated Biden would “remain focused on the issues that matter to the American people, including preventing the devastating and harmful cuts proposed by House Republicans that are hurtling us toward a government shutdown.”

Republicans’ impeachment push has did not quiet hard-line finances hawks who’ve stated they received’t again a short-term deal to cease a shutdown. On Tuesday, a deliberate procedural vote to advance a stopgap deal struck between two Republican factions was pulled abruptly, drawing new consideration to the social gathering’s fractures.

The announcement of the impeachment listening to seems to have set off an alarm bell throughout the Republican caucus.

A supply acquainted with the matter stated some aides have been confused by the committee labeling it an impeachment inquiry listening to, and that it’s extra precisely described as an Oversight listening to on Hunter Biden, the primary such listening to for the reason that inquiry was launched.

“Oversight is going to have an Oversight hearing on Hunter Biden, and this is the first time that we’ve had such hearing since the inquiry was launched,” the supply stated in an effort to tell apart the listening to from the formal impeachment effort. 

The push to impeach Biden follows months of GOP-led probes into the president’s relations, including Hunter, whom they are saying leveraged his father’s affect to conduct enterprise abroad.

Republicans have stated they are going to use the inquiry to floor proof for what House Speaker Kevin McCarthy claimed was a “culture of corruption” across the president. The White House has denied the allegations.