Colorado’s House delegation split along partisan lines Wednesday as Republicans voted to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over fierce objections from Democrats, who called the move an act of political retribution.

“It’s time to impeach Joe Biden once and for all,” tweeted U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Silt Republican and one of the Biden administration’s most persistent critics. “The American people gave us the House to hold him accountable. Let’s get the job done.”

Calling the inquiry “baseless,” U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, a Lafayette Democrat, countered that the House GOP’s lengthy investigation has yet to turn up any evidence to support removing the president from office.

Republicans, Neguse said in remarks on the House floor before the vote, are pursuing impeachment “for one reason and one reason alone: because former President Trump ordered them to do so.”

Said Neguse: “You ask them to articulate what crime they are investigating; they can’t give you an answer. You ask them to identify any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden – crickets.”

While former Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched the inquiry months ago, Wednesday’s vote gives additional powers to several House committees looking into allegations involving Biden’s family members and their business dealings.

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a longtime critic of his fellow Republicans’ efforts to impeach Biden, had been the only GOP lawmaker leaning against voting for the inquiry but sided with the majority in the 221-212 party-line vote.

Buck, who announced last month that he wouldn’t seek reelection, outlined his skepticism in a Washington Post op-ed in September, calling out Republicans for “relying on an imagined history” in their zeal to impeach Biden.

Describing the conduct of Biden’s son Hunter as “shady” and “thoroughly reprehensible,” Buck nonetheless concluded: “What’s missing, despite years of investigation, is the smoking gun that connects Joe Biden to his ne’er-do-well son’s corruption.”

On Wednesday, Buck told Politico that he became convinced that “this was about an inquiry and not a vote” following recent talks with GOP lawmakers leading the investigation.

Buck added that he was “irritated” by a recent White House memo arguing that the full House had to authorize a formal inquiry before the administration would cooperate with requests for information.

Neguse was one of the House impeachment managers who prosecuted the case against Trump in 2021 on allegations he attempted to subvert the peaceful transfer of power on Jan. 6. In a cable news appearance Wednesday morning, the Democrat maintained that efforts to impeach Biden were a response to Trump’s earlier impeachments, which both resulted in acquittal in the Senate.

“I think the most salient question one must ask is why – why pursue this path?” Neguse said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “It’s pretty clear to me, and I think to most Americans, that this is an act of political retribution being done on behalf of Donald Trump.”

Noting that Trump’s most recent impeachment was authorized on bipartisan votes, Neguse added: “President Trump has been singularly focused ever since on exacting retribution. And, unfortunately, the sycophants of his in Congress, including the speaker, are all too inclined to pursue that path. So that’s what this vote today really is all about.”

U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, told Colorado Politics before the vote that he supported moving forward with the investigation, calling evidence unearthed by a House committee potentially “very troubling.”

“I’m satisfied that there’s enough evidence to keep investigating more deeply,” Lamborn said. “Which is a slightly different question than has he committed a high crime or misdemeanor. I think the jury’s still out on that.”

U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, who prosecuted Trump’s 2021 impeachment alongside Neguse, slammed Wednesday’s vote as a “sham.”

“Despite finding zero evidence of any wrongdoing by President Biden, MAGA Republicans are moving ahead with their sham impeachment inquiry,” the Denver Democrat tweeted after the vote. “This incredible waste of time shows they care more about exacting petty political revenge than they care about governing.”

Boebert has made multiple attempts to impeach Biden, including in June when she forced a vote on the House floor over a resolution accusing Biden of “dereliction of duty” over the president’s handling of immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico.

The Republican-controlled House voted along party lines to send her resolution to committees for further review.