Report: White House Remains Noncommittal on Biden Cooperation with House Impeachment Probe

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to speculate Wednesday on whether President Joe Biden would cooperate fully with the House as it undertakes an impeachment inquiry.

According to reports, including from Breitbart News, a reporter asked Jean-Pierre if Biden intended to cooperate with an inquiry into alleged “abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption.”

Jean-Pierre’s response did not provide a clear sense of Biden’s stance on the issue. As Breitbart reported, she said, “I’m certainly not going to speculate on what has been a baseless inquiry that the House Republicans can’t even really defend themselves.”

“I’m going to refer to my White House counsel on any specifics,” she added, as per the outlet’s report on Wednesday night.

She also avoided answering a question about how Biden had reacted to the news of the inquiry.

Later, in response to another question from the media, she added, “What you see Republicans in Congress, right, they have spent all year investigating the president. That’s what they’ve spent all year doing and have turned up with no evidence. None.”

But House leadership has taken a different view as it has looked into business dealings by Biden’s son Hunter Biden and the president’s own links to such things as alleged influence peddling.

The president has been accused of helping his son exchange access to the White House for lucrative foreign business deals. This occurred while Biden was Barack Obama’s vice president.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., chose to open an inquiry without a formal floor vote, even as some Republican senators have expressed concerns that there has not yet been sufficient evidence presented to proceed toward impeachment.

In addition to Biden’s alleged roles in the family business, evidence of Biden’s involvement in his son’s calls with foreign entities has been presented. Some lawmakers have also voiced concerns that the president offered special treatment to his son during a Justice Department investigation into alleged tax and gun crimes.

Meanwhile, the White House on Wednesday issued “guidance” to the mainstream media regarding the new inquiry. It sent a letter to top news executives, urging them to intensify scrutiny of House Republicans.

Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House impeachment war room, wrote a letter to be sent to news organizations such as The New York Times, Fox News, The Associated Press, CBS News, and others, CNN reported.

“It’s time for the media to ramp up its scrutiny of House Republicans for opening an impeachment inquiry based on lies,” Sams wrote, according to the letter.