Washington DC - US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for a bombshell impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden.

"I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry," the Republican said, claiming that Biden lied to the American people about his son Hunter's foreign business dealings.

"The American people deserve to know that the public offices are not for sale and that the federal government is not being used to cover up the actions of a politically associated family."

McCarthy has bowed to persistent pressure from his party's far right, with Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert among the loudest voices calling for an impeachment.

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Oversight and Accountability Committee chairman James Comer had been leading a probe into the unsubstantiated claims that Biden took bribes while he was vice president.

Speaking to the media, McCarthy said "eye witnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phones and had multiple interactions, dinners that resulted in millions of dollars into his son and his son's business partners."

"I would encourage the president and his team to fully cooperate with this investigation in the interests of transparency," he added "We will go wherever the evidence takes us."

The White House immediately condemned the McCarthy's move, calling it "extreme politics at its worst."

"House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they've turned up no evidence of wrongdoing," Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, said on X.

On Monday, the Democratic-led Congressional Integrity Project released a report documenting "James Comer’s Eight Months of Abject Failure." It laid out a pattern of big talk and little substance from Republicans, who have regularly shouted from rooftops about crimes and the "deep state" without producing a single shred of concrete evidence.

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That didn't stop many of them from celebrating Tuesday's development, though, with no one more emphatic than twice-impeached and four-times indicted former President Donald Trump.

"These lowlifes Impeached me TWICE (I WON!), and Indicted me FOUR TIMES – For NOTHING!" he wrote on Truth Social. "Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US!"

For Trump's wishes to come true, a majority of representative would have to vote to charge Biden, with two-thirds of the Senate required to convict him.