Washington, Dec 14 (IANS): US House Republicans have voted to authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, in a 221-212 vote along party lines.

"The impeachment power resides solely with the House of Representatives," Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, a hardliner within the Republican party, told reporters on Wednesday.

"If a majority of the House now says we're in an official impeachment inquiry as part of our constitutional duty to do oversight, that carries weight. That's going to help us get these witnesses in," said the Ohio Republican, one of the leaders of the impeachment push.

Republicans hope that the impeachment inquiry vote would give them better legal standing to hold the President's son Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress should he fail to show, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hunter Biden, the first child of a sitting president to be criminally indicted, appeared at a news conference outside the Capitol Wednesday morning, when he again offered to testify in a public hearing, after refusing to appear at a closed-door deposition Republicans demanded.