Sen. Mitt Romney condemned the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee for its investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden.
The Utah Republican questioned whether it was a “legitimate” use of taxpayer dollars to investigate the Obama administration’s policy in Ukraine as it relates to Joe and Hunter Biden. He claimed the inquiry was a “political exercise.”
“The Biden-Burisma investigation … I think, from the outset, had the earmarks of a political exercise, and I’m fearful that comments made in the media recently have only confirmed that perspective,” Romney said.
“Obviously, it’s the provenance of campaigns and political parties, opposition research, the media to carry out political endeavors, to learn about or dust up one’s opponent, but it’s not the legitimate role of government for Congress or taxpayer expense to be used in an effort to damage political opponents,” he added.
The elder Biden is now the Democratic presidential nominee. The 2020 election is less than two months away.
The committee voted to allow Chairman Ron Johnson’s subpoena authority for witnesses in an inquiry into the Russia investigation, including Stefan Halper, a Cambridge professor who served as an FBI informant during its investigation into President Trump’s 2016 campaign, and six other “Spygate” witnesses.
But Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, pulled a motion from the agenda on Wednesday that aimed to “authorize the Chairman to issue subpoenas for testimony and notices for taking depositions to individuals relating to Burisma Holdings and actual or apparent conflicts of interest with U.S.-Ukraine policy.” Romney, the only Republican senator to vote for an article of impeachment against Trump, praised the move.
“I am pleased that our votes today do not include additional authorizations relating to the, I’ll call it, ‘Biden-Burisma investigation,'” he said.
Johnson said he expects to release interim details about Biden that reveal his “unfitness for office” in the coming weeks.
