GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis finished the second Republican primary debate and immediately suggested another: a one-on-one face-off with former President Donald Trump. 

‘Since the former president didn’t come here, maybe he would be willing to do one with you and I,’ DeSantis told Fox News host Sean Hannity. ‘I think he owes it to our voters to come and make the case.’ 

‘Here’s the thing though, you owe it to the voters to come and make the case. No one’s entitled to anything. You can say, ‘Oh, some poll months before,’ no. You gotta make the case. You owe it to the voters,’ DeSantis added from the Reagan Library. 

DeSantis’ idea for a Hannity-moderated event with Trump was inspired by the upcoming 90-minute debate that the Florida governor will be having with Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Nov. 30. Newsom attended the GOP California debate Wednesday night as surrogate for President Biden’s re-election campaign. 

Reached for comment Thursday, the Trump campaign rejected the notion. 

‘Rob DeSanctimonious? The loser in 5th place in New Hampshire? His pathetic campaign is over. Good night, sweet prince,’ Jason Miller, a senior adviser for the Trump campaign, told Fox News Digital. 

Trump again opted out of participating in the second GOP debate, instead holding a rally in battleground Michigan to blast President Biden for pushing electric vehicles amid an autoworkers strike. On the stage Wednesday, DeSantis argued that both President Biden and Trump were ‘missing in action.’

‘Where’s Joe Biden? He’s completely missing in action from leadership,’ DeSantis said on stage. ‘And you know who else is missing in action? Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record, where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have.’ 

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also called out the former president for not participating in the debate.

‘Joe Biden hides in his basement and won’t answer as to why he’s raising the debt the way he’s done. And Donald Trump, he hides behind the walls of his golf clubs and won’t show up here to answer questions like all the rest of us are up here to answer,’ Christie said during the debate. ‘He put $7 trillion on the debt. He should be in this room to answer those questions for the people you talk about who are suffering.’

Former President Donald Trump mocked his competition for the Republican Party nomination on Wednesday, saying he wouldn’t give them a job in a hypothetical 2024 administration.

Trump made the remarks during a rally in Michigan on Wednesday night following a day of campaigning among autoworkers on strike in the state.

‘We’re competing with the job candidates, they’re all running for a job. No, they’re all job candidates,’ Trump said of his competition. ‘They want to be in the—they want to, they’ll do anything, secretary of something, they even say VP.’

‘Does anybody see the VP in the group? I don’t think so,’ the former president added.

Seven GOP candidates were on the stage Wednesday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

The candidates were North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, biotech entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy, and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.

The most recent Fox News poll shows 60% of Republican primary voters supporting Trump for the GOP nomination — up from 53% in the last survey in August. 

The only other candidates to receive double-digit support in that poll are DeSantis at 13% and Ramaswamy at 11%.

Haley sits at 5%, with Pence and Scott at 3% each. Christie is polling at 2%, with the remaining GOP candidates receiving less than 1%.

According to a new Washington Post/ABC poll from over the weekend, Trump is currently leading President Biden by 10 points in a head-to-head general election survey among voters. The poll said if the 2024 presidential election were held today, Trump would win 52% to 42% over Biden.

Meanwhile, Biden’s approval rating sits at 37%, according to the poll, while 56% of respondents actively disapprove of his presidency.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., sent a letter Thursday to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas demanding the termination of the newly-established ‘Homeland Intelligence Experts Group,” because at least three members helped suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story preceding the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

‘As you know, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Paul Kolbe all signed onto the infamous October 2020 letter, which falsely declared the Hunter Biden laptop story to be ‘Russian misinformation,’ Hawley wrote in the letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital. ‘This was a clear attempt to aid then-candidate Joe Biden. Recent investigations have revealed text messages and emails that corroborate the corrupt intent behind the letter’s publication.’

He added, ‘It is therefore baffling that your Department would regard these individuals as having any remaining credibility with respect to intelligence matters.’

Last week, the DHS unveiled the intel experts group in a statement claiming its membership includes ‘a wide range of views and perspectives, with a membership that includes former senior intelligence officials, journalists, and prominent human rights and civil liberties advocates’ to meet four times a year providing input on ‘terrorism, fentanyl, transborder issues, and emerging technology.’

Former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA senior operations officer Paul Kolbe — all part of the 17-member group — signed an open letter in October 2020 claiming the now-infamous Hunter Biden laptop story, first reported by the New York Post, ‘has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’ The letter was signed by 51 former intelligence officials.

The CIA also approved the publication of the Hunter Biden laptop letter, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital in May. 

‘Enlisting the support of these discredited officials as the nation prepares for the 2024 presidential election appears to signal that DHS will continue its attempts to censor speech that is inconvenient to the current Administration,’ Hawley wrote. 

HAWLEY PROBES MISSOURI TRANSGENDER CENTER OVER ALLEGED ‘EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENTS’ ON MINORS

Hawley joins a choir of GOP lawmakers in the House who also sent a letter to Mayorkas last week. Members on the Committee on Homeland Security wrote, ‘Your decision to appoint members to this group who have demonstrated political bias suggests misplaced priorities.’

By Oct. 15, Hawley — who sits on the upper chamber’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs — wants the DHS to hand over all records related to the intel group’s establishment, such as communications on its formation, meeting minutes, legal reviews of its activities’ constitutionality, records of recruited individuals and any communications with the White House regarding its formation or appointment of members.

‘The security of the American people depends on our capacity to collect, generate, and disseminate actionable intelligence to our federal, state, local, territorial, tribal, campus, and private sector partners,’ Mayorkas said in a news release after the group was announced. ‘I express my deep gratitude to these distinguished individuals for dedicating their exceptional expertise, experience, and vision to our critical mission.’

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary. 

Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., signaled he would be open to working with the Democrat-held Senate on a stopgap funding compromise to avert a government shutdown — but only if the deal included elements to strengthen border security, sources told Fox News Digital.

McCarthy spoke to GOP lawmakers at a closed-door conference meeting Thursday in order to ‘rally the troops’ for an agreement on how to fund the government in the next fiscal year, one GOP aide said. 

Congressional leaders on both sides have acknowledged that a stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), is likely needed to give lawmakers more time to cobble together 12 individual appropriations bills to fund the government in the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

Two sources familiar with the meeting told Fox News Digital that McCarthy suggested he was willing to sit down with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., but only after House Republicans passed their own CR.

McCarthy ‘laid out the same strategy as debt ceiling,’ one source said, in that he ‘wants us to pass something before they pass something.’

The source added, ‘He said it would be easier to get Schumer to agree to an immigration change than [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.].’

‘Basically [McCarthy] said we are going to look bad without our own plan and the Senate having passed something,’ the source said.

A second source, who also requested anonymity to discuss the matter freely, confirmed that House Republicans’ goal was to pass their own bill and then negotiate against the Senate.

The second source said McCarthy warned that failure to pass a House GOP CR would diminish their leverage in discussions. 

A GOP lawmaker who was at the meeting told Fox News Digital that McCarthy said he told Schumer that border security elements were a must-have in any CR.

‘I’ve had conversation with Democrat senators even as early as today who want to do something on the border,’ McCarthy told reporters on Thursday morning. ‘I think this is a place where we can get a short term stopgap if we get something on the border.’

However, it is not clear that House Republicans have the votes to pass their CR deal. Proposals floated among the House GOP include cutting spending back to 2022 levels, about $130 billion less than fiscal year 2023, for the stopgap bill’s duration. They have also included Republicans’ border security bill, H.R.2.

There are still a handful of House Republicans who are opposed to a CR on principle, arguing that it still extends the previous Democrat-held Congress’ priorities.

The Senate, by contrast, is moving forward with its own CR that would simply extend this year’s funding priorities. It also includes funding for Ukraine and for U.S. disaster relief. 

However, despite uncertainty in the House, McCarthy is still forging ahead with the CR vote on Friday or Saturday, a GOP lawmaker said while also signaling frustration at the Republican holdouts.

‘I think it’ll happen. Now whether it passes is a different story,’ the lawmaker said. ‘But at least let people be on record on whether they support a shutdown and keeping the border open.’

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner on Thursday brought President Joe Biden’s alleged improper retention and mishandling of classified records from his time as vice president and in the U.S. Senate into the House impeachment inquiry against him. 

Turner, R-Ohio, during the first hearing as part of the House impeachment inquiry against President Biden, raised that the president is currently under federal criminal investigation for his alleged mishandling of classified records, blasting him as a ‘classified document hoarder.’

Beyond Biden’s alleged involvement in his son’s business dealings, Turner said ‘there’s also another concerning aspect of President Joe Biden’s actions as vice president, for which there is currently a criminal investigation, and that is his misuse of classified documents.’

‘There has been appointed by the Department of Justice, by the attorney general, a special prosecutor for the purposes of investigating the federal crimes that could arisen as a result from this president’s misuse of classified documents,’ Turner said.

Special Counsel Robert Hur was appointed in January to investigate the president’s alleged improper retention of the records. The status of that investigation, at this point, is unclear. 

‘This committee, in its scope of this investigation, indicates that these classified materials are also relevant because, example, the Oversight committee has requested information regarding the classified materials discovered in the president’s home, where his son has resided during the time period relevant to the investigation and personal office,’ Turner said. 

Turner said that the White House ‘has not provided this information.’ 

‘Obviously, his son was receiving payments from Romania, Russia, Ukraine, China,’ Turner said, referring to financial records uncovered by the House Oversight Committee. ‘If there are in those documents that relate to, for example, the prosecutor in Ukraine or Burisma itself or other aspects of Ukraine or any of the parties or individuals obviously, that were making payments to Hunter Biden, that would be relevant, wouldn’t it?’

Law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley, a witness at the hearing, agreed, saying ‘pre-office conduct’ should be considered.

Turley, though, said it is ‘not clear to me’ whether Biden’s retention of the records ‘would amount to an impeachable offense or not.’

‘Right,’ Turner said. ‘You have to make that nexus.’

Turner said that, in his role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he has seen several of the documents Biden had been holding.

‘I can tell you they are of the highest level of concern and threat to national security,’ Turner said. ‘I think we do have to get to the bottom of why was he taking them and what was he doing with them.’

Former President Trump was also under separate special counsel investigation for his alleged improper retention of classified records at Mar-a-Lago. Special Counsel Jack Smith charged Trump with 37 federal charges, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts. 

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee repeatedly sought to refocus the attention on former President Donald Trump during the Republican-led impeachment inquiry hearing on President Biden Thursday.

The committee, led by Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., held its first impeachment inquiry public hearing, where members presented evidence uncovered to date as part of their investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings, while examining ‘the value’ of the inquiry.

Committee Democrats repeatedly accused Republicans of taking cues from Trump in launching the inquiry and used the opportunity to highlight the former president’s myriad legal issues.

‘President Trump has gone on his social media account and said we should be impeaching President Biden,’ Ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in his opening statement. ‘Kevin McCarthy said we have an impeachment inquiry. You draw the conclusion. Directly or indirectly, this impeachment inquiry was a result of President Trump’s pressure.’

‘It’s scandalous to use impeachment to establish a counterfeit moral equivalence between President Biden, an honorable public servant who has never been indicted or convicted of anything in his career of more than 50 years in public life,’ Raskin continued. ‘And Donald Trump, a twice impeached president who’s recently been found in court to have sexually abused and defamed a woman and fraudulently inflated the value of his real estate properties, while facing 91 criminal charges in four separate indictments on everything from conspiring to overthrow an election and defraud the American people to making criminal hush money payoffs, to stealing classified government documents and hiding them while obstructing justice.’

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., accused the Republicans of trying to ‘distract’ and ‘deflect’ before launching into a guessing game with the only Democrat-appointed witness, law professor Michael Gerhardt, in which he inserted Biden’s name for Trump’s in order to try to illustrate that Trump, not Biden, should be investigated.

‘Hold on to those two words ‘distract’ and ‘deflect,’ because I think this hearing’s all about, ‘Look over here, not over there,’’ Connolly said.

‘So, Professor Gerhardt, I’ve heard concern about branding, so shouldn’t we be concerned about all those Biden towers all over the world where foreign partnerships were formed and influence was used here in the United States?’ Connolly said, knowingly alluding to Trump Towers located in cities across the globe.

‘I think we are talking about Mr. Trump,’ Gerhardt responded.

Connolly continued, ‘Shouldn’t we be concerned that a New York judge just found President Biden’s organization committed fraud every year for the last ten or 15 years, and that under the Martin Law in New York, that Biden organization is now subject to dismemberment and dismantlement because of the fraudulent activity.’

‘That should be of concern with respect to Mr. Trump,’ Gerhardt replied.

‘Mr. Trump again,’ Connelly responded, feigning incredulity.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., mused that the former president ‘lives free in the Democrats’ heads.’

‘I’m amazed at, and I love the fact that Trump lives free in the Democrats’ heads every day,’ she said. ‘That is a beautiful thing. Even though we’re here talking about the impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden.’

Committee Democrats also repeatedly mentioned Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer for Trump, during the impeachment inquiry hearing. 

Democrats say Giuliani promoted a ‘big lie’ that then-Vice President Joe Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who was threatening to investigate Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, whose board Hunter Biden served on. 

Raskin said this was the ‘opposite of the truth,’ and that Biden led a ‘coordinated global effort’ to remove Shokin because he was corrupt. He asserted that Giuliani twisted the facts to accuse Biden of corruption  — an accusation repeatedly made by Trump — and quoted Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, who said there was ‘no evidence that Shokin was engaged in an investigation of Burisma or that Joe Biden’s role in his firing was in any way connected to Burisma.’ 

Raskin later pointed to a letter Giuliani associate Lev Parnas sent to Congress urging Republicans to drop their Burisma investigation, calling it a ‘wild goose chase.’ 

Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., demanded to know why Giuliani was not testifying at the hearing, since Trump sent Giuliani to Ukraine to urge the government there to open investigations into the Biden family. The pressure Trump exerted on Ukraine to investigate Biden ultimately became the basis for the first impeachment effort led by Democrats against Trump, of which the former president was acquitted. 

Fox News’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., confronted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., at a closed-door House GOP conference meeting on Thursday morning. 

A source familiar with the meeting said ‘fireworks’ occurred when Gaetz rose to accuse McCarthy and his allies of waging an online campaign against him using ‘MAGA influencers paid to attack Matt’ on social media.

McCarthy denied the claim and dismissed Gaetz. ‘McCarthy said he wouldn’t waste his time on Gaetz like that,’ the source told Fox News Digital.

Another source present at the meeting said that McCarthy told Gaetz, ‘Tomorrow I’m spending my time giving $5 million [to GOP candidates and members] to expand our majority. What are you doing to help our majority?’

The second source said that other members also had expressed frustration with Gaetz. One lawmaker told Gaetz to ‘f— off,’ the source said, while another called him a ‘scumbag.’

Gaetz seemed to confirm to reporters he and McCarthy had had the exchange when he exited the meeting. 

‘I asked him whether or not he was paying those influencers to post negative things about me online,’ Gaetz said. 

He also confirmed that McCarthy had said he would not waste his time: ‘Yeah, that is what he said.’

Asked whether he felt frustration with McCarthy during the exchange and the aftermath, Gaetz said: ‘My blood pressure is like 120 over 80. So I’m feeling great.’

A spokesperson for McCarthy confirmed to Fox News Digital that the speaker ‘had absolutely no role’ in the alleged online campaign, and that ‘all signs’ point to a Democrat-backed company.

Fox News Digital was provided with a screenshot of a cease-and-desist email sent by McCarthy’s outside lawyer to the alleged orchestrators. 

‘I am outside counsel to Speaker Kevin McCarthy. I understand based on multiple reporter inquiries that reference your name that you are reaching out to social media influencers about a ‘Against Gaetz and government shutdown’ and claiming it is on behalf of Speaker McCarthy and/or entities purportedly affiliated with the Speaker. That is false and in violation of the law,’ the email read. ‘This email puts you on notice that you must immediately cease and desist or we will move forward with all remedies under the law including the pursuit of damages where warranted.’

It’s the latest sign of animosity between the two lawmakers. Gaetz has been threatening to force a House-wide vote on whether to boot McCarthy from the speakership over alleged violations of a deal he struck with critics to win the speaker’s gavel in January. 

Under confirmed terms of that compromise, McCarthy agreed to allow any lawmaker to trigger a vote on his removal, known as a motion to vacate. 

Gaetz stopped short of calling for a motion to vacate in remarks on the House floor Tuesday. 

‘[T]he House of Representatives has been poorly led. We own that, and we have to do something about it. My Democrat colleagues will have an opportunity to do something about that, too, and we will see if they bail out our failed Speaker,’ he said.

Gaetz dodged questions on the measure on Thursday, however, telling reporters, ‘Right now we’re working to get these individual single-subject spending bills passed, that’s my principal goal.’

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., told the Democratic Senate Caucus during a closed lunch on Thursday he would not resign amid federal corruption and bribery charges announced this week.

‘I will continue to cast votes on behalf of the people of New Jersey as I have for 18 years,’ Menendez said as he exited the lunch. ‘I think Schumer may need those votes, he’ll be looking forward for me to cast them.’

According to Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V, who was in the meeting, Menendez made his point well. Menendez and his wife federal corruption and bribery charges.

‘I think he made his point, he delivered it very well,’ Manchin told reporters. ‘Basically the whole theme of everything was every American is innocent until proven guilty, giving the benefit of the doubt.’

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., and Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii., left the meeting while Menendez spoke due to being on the ethics committee, Coons told reporters.

‘As the chairman of the ethics committee, I can’t comment on any matter that is or may be before the committee. As a result, I do my best to avoid circumstances where matters that are or may be before the Ethics Committee are discussed,’ Coons said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to say whether Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., should resign from his position Wednesday afternoon.

According to Manchin, Schumer did not say anything during Thursday’s meeting, and just ‘gave him the floor.’ Schumer did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment after the meeting. 

A senior Senate Democrat also said following the meeting: ‘I’m really depressed about it. I don’t know what to do about it. We all don’t. I’m not going to say anymore about it.’

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said, ‘I don’t think there’s anything happy about this situation.’ 

Menendez was indicted Friday in the Southern District of New York for allegedly agreeing to use his official position to benefit New Jersey businessmen Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes and Egypt’s government in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes. The indictment also charges Menendez’s wife, Nadine, and the three businessmen in the years-long alleged bribery scheme. Federal prosecutors said the bribes included gold bars, cash and a luxury convertible. 

So far, Menendez has refused to resign his seat but stepped down from his position as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Friday.

The Democratic senator was also indicted on federal bribery charges in 2016. Fellow New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker defended his innocence at the time, but after the most recent charges called on Menendez to resign. 

The 2016 case related to a wealthy Florida eye doctor and longtime friend who gave generous donations to Menendez and allegedly received benefits in return. He was acquitted of the charges in 2018 following a mistrial. The new charges are unrelated.

Menendez insisted at a press conference Monday he will be exonerated, as he detailed his decades-long record in Congress and insisted hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash the FBI found at his home was withdrawn from his personal savings account.

‘The allegations leveled against me are just that, allegations,’ Menendez said. ‘For anyone who has known me throughout my 50 years of public service, they know I have always fought for what is right. My advocacy has always been grounded. And what I learned from growing up as the son of Cuban refugees, especially my mom, my hero, Evangelina Menendez. Everything I accomplished, I worked for despite the nay sayers and everyone who has underestimated me.’

In June 2022, the FBI executed a search warrant at Menendez and his wife’s New Jersey home where federal agents many of the fruits of the bribery scheme, including cash, gold, the luxury convertible, and home furnishings. Prosecutors say $480,000 in cash, much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe, was discovered in the home, as well as over $70,000 in cash in Nadine’s safe deposit box. Some of the envelopes contained the fingerprints and/or DNA of Daibes or his driver, according to the indictment.

Other of the envelopes were found inside jackets bearing Menendez name and hanging in his closet.

As of Thursday, more than half of the Senate Democratic Caucus have called on Menendez to resign.

Fox News’ Danielle Wallace and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Democrats vehemently decried the first House Oversight Committee’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Thursday as a ‘waste of time’ and ‘illegitimate’ as Congress simultaneously raced against the clock to pass a Continuing Resolution (CR) deal and prevent a looming government shutdown before Saturday’s deadline.

‘Republican extremism is rearing its ugly head,’ House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters Thursday morning. ‘They are wasting time and taxpayer dollars on an illegitimate Impeachment Inquiry when we’re about 48 hours away or so from an extreme MAGA, Republican government shutdown — and this is what they’re focused on, an illegitimate impeachment inquiry as opposed to doing the business of the American people.’

Other Democrats followed suit on X, formerly known as Twitter, and joined in on the criticisms of the hearing.

‘The government shuts down in TWO DAYS, and House Republicans are… wasting time today holding a sham impeachment hearing??? Stop playing political games. Do your jobs. Fund the government,’ Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., posted to X. The congresswoman previously voted to impeach former President Donald Trump in 2021. 

California Democrat Robert Garcia said on X: ‘We are going to hit back on every lie and conspiracy theory.

‘We are ready to push back on a sham impeachment inquiry,’ Garcia posted Wednesday evening.

Greg Casar, a Democrat running for Congress with the backing of the progressive PAC Justice Democrats, called the impeachment hearing ‘baseless.’

‘My job is to defend the truth, while extremist Republicans try to defend Trump through their fact-free inquiry against President Biden,’ Cesar posted to X.

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., posted a snarky photo with a thumbs up and holding a box of Bud Light with a sign saying: ‘TO: REP. COMER & HIS SQUAD A PROFILE IN COURAGE CAN MAKE A GUY THIRSTY. CONGRATULATIONS, THIS BUD’S FOR YOU.
HUGS & KISSES: JOHN FETTERMAN.’ 

New Mexico Democrat Rep. Melanie Stansbury said in a video posted to X that the hearing was essentially ‘continued peddling of conspiracy theories’ and shifted the blame to the ‘continued efforts of Donald Trump to undermine our institutions and our democracy.’

‘And then to distract from his own 91 counts of criminal indictment and his own twice impeachment, which is, of course never happened of any president ever before, because of his attempts to overthrow a fair and free election and his attempts, and his attempts to bribe a foreign official, which is part of the matter at hand,’ she said.

House Republicans on Thursday morning presented evidence uncovered to date as part of their investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings while examining ‘the value’ of an impeachment inquiry.

‘The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has uncovered a mountain of evidence revealing how Joe Biden abused his public office for his family’s financial gain,’ Comer said in his opening statement. ‘For years, President Biden has lied to the American people about his knowledge of and participation in his family’s corrupt business schemes.’

‘Evidence reveals that then-Vice President Joe Biden spoke, dined, and developed relationships with his family’s foreign business targets. These business targets include foreign oligarchs who sent millions of dollars to his family,’ Comer said. ‘It also includes a Chinese national who wired a quarter of a million dollars to his son.’

Comer was referring to subpoenaed Hunter Biden financial records, which revealed he received two wires originating from Beijing and linked to BHR Partners in 2019.

Fox News Digital first reported that Hunter Biden received the wire payments, which originated in Beijing, for more than $250,000 from Chinese business partners during the summer of 2019 — wires that listed the Delaware home of Joe Biden as the beneficiary address for the funds.

The White House did not respond to Fox News’ Digital request for comment.

‘Today the House Oversight Committee has uncovered how the Biden’s and their associates created over 20 shell companies, most of which were created when Joe Biden was vice president and raked in over $20 million between 2014 and 2019,’ Comer said. ‘We’ve also identified nine Biden family members who have participated in or benefited from these shady business schemes.’

‘And what were the Biden’s selling to make all this money? Joe Biden himself,’ Comer continued. ‘Joe Biden is the brand, and Joe Biden showed up at least two dozen times with business targets and associates sending signals of access, influence and power to those prepared to pay for it.’

Committee Democrats repeatedly accused Republicans of taking cues from Trump in launching the inquiry and used the opportunity to highlight the former president’s myriad legal issues.

‘President Trump has gone on his social media account and said we should be impeaching President Biden,’ Ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in his opening statement. ‘Kevin McCarthy said we have an impeachment inquiry. You draw the conclusion. Directly or indirectly, this impeachment inquiry was a result of President Trump’s pressure.’

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.