Image source, Reuters

We're closing our live coverage shortly, so here's a round-up of what's happened over the last few hours:

• The US House of Representatives have announced that a formal impeachment inquiry will be opened into US President Joe Biden
• Kevin McCarthy, the most senior Republican in the lower chamber, said the inquiry will focus on "allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption" into Biden
• McCarthy said his party had uncovered what he called serious and credible corruption allegations that Biden had profited off his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings
• Biden has denied being involved in his son's business ventures overseas and the White House slammed the inquiry as "extreme politics"
• House Republican-led investigations into Hunter Biden have not found any direct evidence of wrongdoing by the president

• Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer called the impeachment inquiry "absurd" whereas right-wing Republican Scott Perry said it was "long overdue"

Today's coverage was brought to you by Holly Honderich, Anthony Zurcher, George Wright and Chloe Kim. Editors were Brandon Livesay and Marianna Brady.

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Republican Scott Perry says the impeachment inquiry is "long overdue".

He was speaking at a press conference for the Freedom Caucus - a group of right-wing Republican members of the House of Representatives, who have reportedly been pressuring Speaker Kevin McCarthy to launch the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

"I think any other citizen that had stacked up against him what the president had stacked up against him right now would already be in the court," the Pennsylvania representative said.

"This isn't about political revenge. We have the bank accounts, you can see that the homes that the Biden's own can't be afforded on a congressional or senate salary.

"You also understand that it's not normal for family members to receive millions of dollars from overseas interests.

"Those things aren't normal," he adds.

A spokeswoman for the Joe Biden 2024 campaign says the announcement of an impeachment inquiry is based on "debunked conspiracy theories".

Ammar Moussa, spokesperson for Biden-Harris 2024, says Kevin McCarthy has "cemented his role as the Trump campaign’s super-surrogate" as the former president "ramped up his demands for a baseless impeachment inquiry".

"Eleven days ago, McCarthy unequivocally said he would not move forward with an impeachment inquiry without holding a vote on the House floor. What has changed since then?", Moussa said in a statement.

"Several members of the Speaker’s own conference have come out and publicly panned impeachment as a political stunt, pointing out there is no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden as Republicans litigate the same debunked conspiracy theories they’ve investigated for over four years.”

As the campaign heats up for the 2024 presidential race, it remains to be seen how much power the inquiry will hold for voters.

Sean Dilley and Rebecca Hartmann
reporting from Washington

Kevin McCarthy knows that any attempt to impeach Joe Biden as US president is futile.

Like his predecessor as House Speaker, the Democratic party’s Nancy Pelosi, McCarthy is a highly partisan operator.

He’s relying on three now concluded Republican led subcommittees in Congress to repeat serious allegations against Joe Biden – that he had personal knowledge of his son Hunter's foreign business dealings and that his family and associates benefited to the tune of $20 million through an alleged complex web of payments made to shell companies.

But there are three reasons why Speaker McCarthy’s decision to direct an impeachment inquiry won’t work.

The first is the numbers. Here in Washington, there’s extreme scepticism that McCarthy could not have found 218 Republicans to back a formal inquiry. Just 11 days ago, he had insisted that one would not be triggered without a vote. Today’s announcement is quite the U-turn.

Even if the House votes to impeach him it then goes to the upper chamber, or the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats with a majority of 51 to 49. The president will only be removed if two-thirds of the Senate back the move. That will not happen with this Senate, and it never has in history.

The second problem for McCarthy is that the three sub-committees which have investigated Biden over the past nine months found no conclusive evidence. It’s unlikely that any new and substantial evidence exists and unlikely therefore that the result would be different.

The third is that no US President has ever been removed by Congress. Three have been impeached – Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Donald Trump twice - in 2019 and 2021.

Image source, Reuters

Republicans have been investigating the president since they took control of the House in January but the hearings have found no concrete evidence of misconduct by Biden.

They have, however, shed more light on business dealings by the president's son Hunter Biden, which Republicans say are questionable - and on Biden's knowledge of his son's activities.

Republicans want to see Hunter Biden further criminally charged. And by extension, the president. They allege that President Biden has profited from his son's business dealings in Ukraine and China.

Hunter Biden has been charged with two misdemeanour tax offenses for allegedly not paying income taxes in 2017 and 2018, years in which he earned in excess of $1.5m (£1.1m), according to the US Attorney's Office in Delaware.

He faces an additional felony charge for allegedly possessing a firearm while addicted to and using illegal drugs.

Hunter Biden had previously reached a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to the tax charges and admit the gun offence to spare himself prison time.

But a US District Court judge squashed the deal due to "non standard terms" and the "unusual" nature of the proposed resolution for the gun charge.

Read more here: The legal troubles of Hunter Biden

The BBC's Anthony Zurcher explains why the US president's son, Hunter Biden, is looming large over the campaign trail and beyond.

Image source, EPA

Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has just called the impeachment inquiry against President Biden "absurd".

He said it should not interfere with efforts to avoid a government shutdown.

"The American people want us to do something that will make their lives better, not go off on these chases and witch hunts," Schumer told reporters.

"Now we have a group of Republicans - and McCarthy seems to go along - that want to go through the absurdity of impeaching a president when we have so many other things we have to get done," he added.

Members of the upper chamber of the US Congress react to news that the lower chamber is launching an impeachment inquiry into the sitting president.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Speaker McCarthy has said in the past that impeachment proceedings would give House Republicans powerful new tools to investigate allegations of Biden's financial impropriety and "get the rest of the knowledge and information that's needed".

On Fox News, he drew parallels with the administration of Richard Nixon, who was the target of a congressional inquiry in 1974 but resigned before he was formally impeached.

"We're watching this administration use government much like Richard Nixon by denying us to get the information that we need," he said.

The House speaker previously had been reluctant to endorse calls from some Republicans in his chamber to initiate impeachment proceedings, saying that it was too soon to follow that course of action.

In July, he said his party would only launch a formal investigation when the evidence supported it.

Image source, Getty Images

Today's announcement from Kevin McCarthy marks the first stage in impeachment.

But the inquiry is not simply about President Biden's alleged wrongdoing. The move from the Republican Speaker of the House may also be an attempt to rally his party around him as another government shutdown looms at the end of the month.

Right-wing Republicans, led by the House Freedom Caucus, have threatened to vote against a fiscal year 2024 budget this month if McCarthy does not meet a number of their demands.

These include steep spending cuts and accountability for alleged crimes committed by the Biden family.

McCarthy may hope the inquiry into Biden will be enough to satiate his Republican critics, gather enough support to pass the budget and avert a shutdown.

Image source, Getty Images

Congressman Matt Gaetz - a far-right Republican and critic of Speaker McCarthy - has called the impeachment inquiry a "baby step, following weeks of pressure from House conservatives to do more".

Gaetz rose in the House just hours after the impeachment announcement to criticise McCarthy, saying the Speaker had failed to keep several promises made to his party's right flank after they helped him to win the speakership.

"Mr Speaker, you are out of compliance," Gaetz said.

"That’s how you know that the rushed and somewhat rattled performance you just saw from the Speaker isn’t real," he added - apparently referring to McCarthy's speech announcing the inquiry.

"We must move faster," he said.

Could this backfire on Republicans?published at 18:26 British Summer Time 12 September 2023

18:26 BST 12 September 2023

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

The move by Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy to back impeachment could be viewed as an attempt to curry the favour of right-wing House Republicans in the lead-up to the budget battles to come.

Such a strategy comes with risks, however. Centrist Republicans in competitive districts have expressed unease with an aggressive impeachment push, worried that it will alienate the independent and moderate voters who carried them to victory - and delivered the House majority to their party.

Already Democrats are pointing out that McCarthy sharply criticised Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi in 2019, when she announced an impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump without holding a formal vote.

While McCarthy has only said he is approving an impeachment inquiry at this point, pressure will build for a formal authorising vote in the House to set the rules for impeachment hearings.

Such a vote would put those centrists on the record - and provide grist for Democratic attacks during the November 2024 general election.

The most senior Republican in the US House, Kevin McCarthy, has accused US President Joe Biden of lying to the public.

Here's McCarthy's statement from earlier, when he announced the impeachment inquiry:

1. Impeachment inquiry
2. House members bring articles (charges) of impeachment against an official
3. Impeachment vote in House. If simple majority reached, the official has been impeached
4. Senate holds impeachment trial
5. Senate votes guilty or not guilty - if found guilty, they are removed from office or if found not guilty, they may continue to serve

An impeachment inquiry is often the first step towards an impeachment by the House of Representatives.

The process is an investigation or inquiry into potential wrongdoing that typically occurs before an impeachment vote.

Depending on what comes out of the probe, articles of impeachment will be written up and sent to the House to be considered.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, dismissed the impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, saying House Republicans were opening the probe "even though they admit they have no reason to open an impeachment inquiry".

Republican-led inquiries into President Biden have not found any concrete evidence of his misconduct.

"They're just fundamentally unserious people," Murphy said.

Image source, Getty Images

Republican Senator Josh Hawley says he is in favour of McCarthy's impeachment inquiry.

"I think the allegations are bad," he tells reporters. "The only way to clear it up is let's just find out. Let's get the facts."

Senator Mitt Romney, too, voiced support, saying he thought the inquiry was appropriate.

"I think the fact that the White House had been singularly silent and has coddled Hunter Biden suggests an inquiry is not inappropriate," he said. Romney, a moderate Republican, voted to convict Donald Trump in both his impeachment trials.

But Romney stressed that an inquiry is "very different than an impeachment".

"An actual impeachment, would require the evidence of a high crime or misdemeanour that has not been alleged," he said.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and some centrists in the party, contemplating challenging re-election races in November 2024, have expressed unease with moving forward with a process that will only enflame political divisions in America.

Only three US presidents have been impeached - Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Donald Trump twice. No one was convicted by the Senate.

Democrats currently have a 51-49 majority in the Senate, virtually ensuring that any Biden impeachment referral from the House will meet a similar fate.

Under House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Republicans have been investigating President Biden since they took control of the House in January.

And at a press conference earlier, McCarthy said those inquiries into the president “paint a picture of a culture of corruption”.

But after months of digging, those Republican-led probes have found no concrete proof of misconduct by President Biden.

Instead, the hearings have shed some light on business dealings by the president's only surviving son Hunter Biden, which Republicans say are questionable - and on the president's knowledge of his son's activities.

Hunter Biden is currently under federal investigation for possible tax crimes related to his foreign business interests.

There is no concrete evidence that the president was involved in any wrongdoing.

A White House spokesman has responded to Kevin McCarthy’s announcement, calling it “extreme politics”.

“House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they've turned up no evidence of wrongdoing”, spokesman Ian Sams wrote on Twitter.

“His own GOP members have said so”.

Impeachment by the House of Representatives is the first step in a formal process to remove a president - or other senior executive or judicial official - from office.

It requires a simple majority vote in the chamber to trigger a trial in the US Senate, where a two-thirds majority is necessary for conviction and removal.

President Donald Trump was impeached twice when Democrats controlled the House - over Ukraine in 2019 and the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021 - but was acquitted by the Senate on both occasions.