This week, both CNN and Politico published articles addressing the challenges Speaker Kevin McCarthy is encountering while attempting to secure the necessary 218 votes to kickstart a Biden impeachment inquiry within his House conference. With a narrow majority of 222 to 212, plus one vacancy, McCarthy requires the support of almost all Republicans, except for a few, to back a formal vote on the House floor for an impeachment inquiry.
Nonetheless, as a number of House Republicans express doubts that the evidence presented in House committee investigations proves Joe Biden’s corruption, McCarthy is contemplating using a strategy Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) used during the initial impeachment of President Trump in 2019 regarding Ukraine. Following Pelosi’s approach, McCarthy is considering launching an impeachment investigation and then waiting a month to hold a floor vote authorizing an impeachment inquiry.
The reports also highlight the upcoming budget clash in September, with the potential for a government shutdown hampering investigations into Biden.
From the CNN report:
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and top Republicans have begun to strategize about how to move forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden this fall – the latest sign that the House GOP is seriously laying the groundwork to initiate rare proceedings against the current president.
In recent weeks, McCarthy has privately told Republicans he plans to pursue an impeachment inquiry into Biden and hopes to start the process by the end of September, according to multiple GOP sources familiar with the conversations. While McCarthy has already publicly threatened to launch an inquiry if
from IRS whistleblowers hold up or if the Biden administration does not cooperate with requests related to House Republicans’ Hunter Biden probe, sources say that McCarthy has sent even stronger signals about his intentions behind closed doors.
But leadership recognizes that the entire House Republican conference is not yet sold on the politically risky idea of impeachment. That’s why one of the biggest lingering questions – and something Republicans have been discussing in recent weeks – is whether they would need to hold a floor vote to formally authorize their inquiry, sources say. There is no constitutional requirement that they do so, and Republicans do not currently have the 218 votes needed to open an impeachment inquiry.
Skipping the formal vote, which would be a tough one for many of the party’s more vulnerable and moderate members, would allow Republicans to get the ball rolling on an inquiry while giving leadership more time to convince the rest of the conference to get on board with impeachment. During former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, House Democrats ended up voting to both formalize their inquiry and set parameters for the process after initially holding off on doing so amid divisions within their ranks.
…And one GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak more freely, offered an even blunter assessment: “There’s no evidence that Joe Biden got money, or that Joe Biden, you know, agreed to do something so that Hunter could get money. There’s just no evidence of that. And they can’t impeach without that evidence. And I don’t I don’t think the evidence exists.”
From the Politico report:
Now, four years later, House Republicans under McCarthy are considering borrowing a page from the Pelosi playbook their leader once scorned as they look to start an impeachment of President JOE BIDEN. According to CNN’s Mel Zanona, GOP lawmakers are discussing a strategy that would start an inquiry without a formal House vote — reporting we can confirm from our own conversations last night.
The irony — should that plan hold — is rich, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed by Democrats, who spent the better part of Trump’s first impeachment warding off GOP attacks on an “illegitimate” impeachment inquiry.
It’s an only-in-Washington tale of hypocrisy, on one hand. On the other, McCarthy has his reasons: Most importantly, he doesn’t have the 218 GOP votes needed to start the inquiry — at least not yet.
Moderate Republicans in Biden-won districts are still privately fretting that there’s no evidence to back up their conservative colleagues’ accusations that the president benefited from his son’s swampy gigs, where HUNTER BIDEN was paid millions of dollars by foreign entities seeking to rent the clout of the Biden name.
“We haven’t proven the case for impeachment yet,” one senior GOP aide told us last night. “How can you start impeachment? We haven’t done what you need to do to start impeachment. There is no way we’d get the votes.”
Certain House Republicans who have reviewed the evidence during their involvement in the three committees investigating Biden (Ways and Means, Oversight, and Judiciary) have seen enough to demand the immediate impeachment and ousting of Biden from his position. However, a portion of this evidence remains concealed from the entire House, either due to stringent secrecy regulations enforced by the Biden administration or through obstruction tactics. McCarthy has expressed that a formal impeachment inquiry would grant the House enhanced authority to investigate Biden.
Ian Sams, Biden’s scandal spokesman, criticized McCarthy for weighing an impeachment inquiry without a floor vote, as shared in a comment posted on Monday. Sams wrote, “Four years ago, McCarthy condemned the notion of pursuing impeachment without a vote. He called the idea ‘unprecedented and politically motivated’ and said it ‘undermines the voting privileges afforded to each Member and the constituents they represent.’”
Four years ago, McCarthy condemned the notion of pursuing impeachment without a vote
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) August 28, 2023
He called the idea “unprecedented and politically motivated” and said it “undermines the voting privileges afforded to each Member and the constituents they represent” https://t.co/xs7f8gFrPJ pic.twitter.com/GvdJTdr6tG
