The US House of Representatives announced today, Thursday, the opening of a formal investigation to impeach President Joe Biden in the context of his son Hunter's controversial international business activities, following a vote of 221 in favor and 212 against.

The House decided to vote on the authorization to investigate the impeachment of President Biden, as Republicans who have held the majority of seats in the House since the beginning of the year accuse Biden of exploiting his influence when he was Vice President under Barack Obama (2009-2017) to allow his son to engage in questionable business activities in China and Ukraine.

Hunter Biden said on Wednesday during a press conference, "My father was never financially involved in my affairs," but at the same time admitted to making "mistakes" in his career.

On his part, Hunter accused "Trump supporters" from in front of the Capitol building of trying to "harm" his father, and for this reason, he refused to participate in a closed hearing organized by Republicans who summoned him to appear before Congress on Wednesday.

The 81-year-old president has long publicly supported his son Hunter Biden and has repeatedly affirmed that he is "proud" of him.

A prior investigation into impeaching Joe Biden was already opened in the summer, but Republicans believe that a formal investigation would grant them additional powers, and thus new possibilities to criminalize the Democratic leader.

Republicans on the House Rules Committee, who agreed to submit the resolution, told the American "Alhurra" satellite channel on Wednesday evening that this step came in response to the Biden administration's delaying handing over documents related to his son Hunter's controversial business activities, accusations that Democratic president's allies consider baseless.

Senior Republican investigators said they would begin contempt proceedings against Hunter Biden for not attending the briefing session.

Meanwhile, American media sources reported that to this moment, Republicans in the House lack sufficient support to hold a full vote amid their ongoing investigation into whether President Biden committed an impeachable offense related to his family's business dealings, while the White House continues to deny the Republican Party’s allegations.

For his part, US President Joe Biden described the House vote as a "baseless political stunt."

The American "Alhurra" satellite channel quoted Biden in a statement issued by the White House today, Thursday, shortly after the vote, saying: "Instead of doing anything to help improve the lives of Americans, the 'Republicans' focus on attacking me with lies, and instead of doing their work on the urgent work that needs to be done, they choose to waste time on this baseless political stunt, which even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by the facts."

The American president referred to issues of the economy, the southern border, Ukraine, and Israel in the statement, saying that "Republicans in Congress will not move to provide assistance on them," stressing the need to focus on addressing the country's economic conditions, saying: "We need to keep making progress on the economy, ensuring that inflation continues to decrease and job growth continues."

He added that "to avoid self-inflicted economic crises like a government shutdown, which Republicans in Congress are pushing for in a few weeks because they will not move now to fund the government and the critical priorities to make life better for the American people."