Biden accuses House GOP of trying to ‘shut down the government’ by launching impeachment inquiry

He dismissed the claims leveled against him, suggesting that his rivals' end goal was to "shut down the government."

"Before I close, I want to say a word about impeachment," Biden said. "It was pointed out to me today that Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first day she was elected, said, 'First thing we want to do is impeach Biden'."

"Well, I tell you what, I don't know quite why, but they just knew they wanted to impeach me, and now the best I can tell, they want to impeach me because they want to shut down the government. You think I'm kidding, watch."

He went on to suggest that he was "not focused" on impeachment, adding, "I've got a job to do."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden on Tuesday, arguing that the evidence he and his team had uncovered "paint a picture of a culture of corruption."

"Through our investigations, we have found that President Biden did lie to the American people about his own knowledge of his family's foreign business dealings," McCarthy said. "Eyewitnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions, dinners, resulted in cars and millions of dollars into his son’s and son’s business partners."

He argued that the "allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption ... warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives."

The effort will be led by Chairman James Comer of the Committee on Oversight in coordination with Chairman Jim Jordan of the Judiciary Committee and Chairman Jason Smith on the Ways and Means Committee.

Shortly after the inquiry was announced, a leaked letter from the White House revealed that the Biden administration had directed major news outlets to "ramp up" their "scrutiny" of House Republicans.

Many outlets followed through and attempted to discount the inquiry, but their claims were demolished by Republican officials.