Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMcConnell focuses on confirming judicial nominees with COVID-19 talks stalled McConnell accuses Democrats of sowing division by 'downplaying progress' on election security Warren, Schumer introduce plan for next president to cancel ,000 in student debt MORE (R-Ky.) is signaling potential support for a probe into former Vice President Joe Biden Joe BidenCast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response Biden tells CNN town hall that he has benefited from white privilege MORE's son Hunter Biden and Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings.

But McConnell said that he doesn't "tell my committee chairman what to investigate" and defended Johnson, who chairs the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

"Senator Johnson's very responsible, not inclined to be overly partisan on everything that comes along. He's been trying, as he indicated, to kind of quietly look at this for some time before Biden's comeback ... which made him more likely the nominee," McConnell said.

"If you become the front-runner you come under a lot of scrutiny, from the press, from both sides. Joe has been around a long time, he knows that this sort of thing will be looked at when you become the likely nominee of your party," McConnell added.

He was previously asked after the end of the impeachment trial if Republicans were now going to target the Bidens, but largely sidestepped taking a position.

"I don't tell the committee chairmen what to look at. One of you suggested earlier the House is probably still in the investigatory business. I can only suggest that the Senate could choose to do that as well, but we don't have a dictatorship over in the Senate,” McConnell said at the time

In addition to Hunter Biden's work on the board of Burisma, Johnson and Grassley have a wide-ranging probe that is looking at potential wrongdoing during the Obama administration.

Republicans have questioned if Hunter Biden's work constituted a conflict of interest given his father's work on Ukraine during the Obama administration.



The former vice president has denied wrongdoing, and there is no evidence that either of the Bidens engaged in any criminal wrongdoing. Fact-checkers have also debunked claims that Biden was working with his son's interest in mind.