Kevin McCarthy won’t say whether he believes Joe Biden has taken bribes

Speaker Kevin McCarthy declined to say whether or not he believes President Joe Biden has taken bribes in an interview with Fox News ‘ Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening. Mr McCarthy, who represents a district in California, is the highest-ranking Republican in the federal government and has clashed with Mr Biden since taking the gavel in the House of Representatives at the beginning of the year. In his appearance on Fox News, Hannity pressed Mr McCarthy to say outright that Mr Biden engaged in influence peddling – rehashing a long discredited claim that Mr Biden used his office as vice president to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor who was supposedly investigating an energy company whose board Hunter Biden served on. In fact, Mr Biden – along with European allies – was leveraging aid to Ukraine to help oust the prosecutor as part of broader anti-corruption efforts in the country. The prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was not investigating the company, Burisma. Mr McCarthy promised that House Republicans would continue investigating Mr Biden and criticised the president’s behaviour, but stopped short of saying outright that he was guilty of bribery. ‘This isn’t about Hunter Biden,’ Mr McCarthy said . ‘This is about paying to play for the Biden family because the money goes to nine different members through shell companies, much like the informant said. So we will continue to follow the information wherever it takes us and provide it to the American public. The difference here is, we don’t do it for political purposes. We follow the Constitution.’ Mr McCarthy, who in the past has hinted that the Republican House might impeach Mr Biden, again suggested that his caucus is prepared to move against the president depending on the results of their ongoing inquiries into his actions. ‘We will take it wherever it [goes], and if it rises to the level, we will do our Constitutional duties – and this is the part I want America to know: America has a right to know if there was pay to play,’ Mr McCarthy said. ‘America has a right to know if Garland is lying to them.’ Mr McCarthy later said that he believes Mr Biden should turn over his bank statements to help clear his name of the bribery allegations that have animated the right wing of the Republican Party and the conservative media ecosystem. Later in the interview, Hannity again tried to pin Mr McCarthy down on the question of whether Mr Biden took bribes. ‘Do you believe we are looking at a bribery scandal with Joe Biden, who’s now president – actions he took as vice president in exchange for family enrichment?’ Hannity asked. Mr McCarthy again attacked Mr Biden, but declined to answer the question directly. ‘I don’t know of any other family that puts together in government 20 shell companies when you’re the vice president of America,’ Mr McCarthy said. ‘My family has no shell companies.’