When Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) appeared on Fox News on Monday and unexpectedly said Republicans’ investigations into President Joe Biden are “going to rise to an impeachment inquiry,” he instantly launched a new chapter in the House GOP’s long-simmering crusade against the White House.
Call it the choose-your-own-adventure impeachment.
In his careful comments, McCarthy offered something for every member of his party as Congress heads into its annual summer recess.
ADVERTISEMENT
He delighted the hard-right wing of the GOP, which has been clamoring to impeach Biden for months, and can now claim to their constituents that they are finally going straight for the president.
He gave cover to the vast middle of the conference, who can lean on the Speaker’s squishy language and process-driven focus to get as close or as far away from impeachment as they need to.
And for the many members who just don’t want to touch the issue right now, McCarthy’s comments were delivered quietly enough that they could simply claim they didn’t hear them.
Several of them, in fact, did just that when asked by The Daily Beast about the Speaker’s rapid shift on impeachment.
“No, I didn’t,” said Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), who represents a swing district Biden carried in 2020. “We’re borrowing $63,000 a second and this is what you focus on?”
“You are functionally the only one who has ever asked me that question,” Schweikert added.
For McCarthy, who has proven to be a skillful triangulator of the various factions of his party, his management of the building impeachment pressure will continue to preserve his own speakership.
As with many McCarthy leadership decisions, however, his short-term survival may spell longer-term problems for himself and for the party. By opening the door to impeaching Biden, the Speaker may have crossed a point of no return on the path to an inevitable impeachment vote.
While Republicans dutifully said they would follow the evidence wherever it leads, clearly, some are not having a hard time seeing the destination.
“I think McCarthy is moving in the right direction, to the next phase,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), who previously served as Trump’s Interior Secretary. “The evidence will lead us to a conclusion and right now, that path is headed toward impeachment, but not at the expense of the Constitution.”
Even if the GOP’s destination is clear, how they will get there remains anything but.
In their sprawling investigations into Biden, his family, and his administration, congressional Republicans have thus far been unable to surface any clear proof that the president abused his power for personal gain.
In talking to Republicans, it’s not clear what conduct they specifically believe would be impeachable; they usually suggest broad areas of inquiry that they believe could lead to the discovery of impeachable offenses.
Since Republicans began aggressively investigating in January, they have focused on allegations that Biden and his family—specifically his son, Hunter—leveraged their influence with foreign actors to enrich themselves. But much of their investigation focuses on facts long in the public record, involving Hunter’s business dealings in Ukraine.
An added element of particular interest to lawmakers is recent testimony from IRS whistleblowers involved with the years-long Department of Justice probe into Hunter. They have claimed that he was shown unusual lenience by prosecutors, though much of the investigation occurred when Trump was president.
While many Republicans support the investigations, privately, GOP sources said they do not believe a clear majority of the conference currently supports moving forward with impeachment.
Some Republicans have been blunt in their assessment of what has been found so far. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) told CNN on Wednesday that “this is impeachment theater” and suggested McCarthy was trying to distract from the party’s disunity on spending bills.
Democrats do not seem too worried that the GOP will put together a cogent case for impeachment. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), the fourth-ranking House Democrat, told The Daily Beast there’s no planning currently underway by the minority to prepare for a GOP impeachment push.
“It’s been over 200 days since the Republicans controlled Congress and they have not done a single thing to move the American family forward,” Lieu said. “Now, they’re focused on stupid stuff, like trying to impeach [Homeland Security] Secretary Mayorkas, or President Biden, and there’s simply no evidence to go forward with any impeachment inquiry.”
Publicly, McCarthy has acknowledged the House investigations have not surfaced any proof of wrongdoing, but he has indicated an impeachment inquiry is the best way to obtain the fullest set of facts.
But such an inquiry would unfold far slower than McCarthy’s most problematic members, those in the far-right Freedom Caucus, might like.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who last month used a procedural motion to force a vote on impeaching Biden, made clear to The Daily Beast that she wanted to see another vote—before lawmakers leave for the August recess.
However, Boebert acknowledged such a vote would fail. “I don’t think there are enough Republicans for that to pass, so no, I don’t think it would be before recess,” she said. “Do I want it to be before recess? Yes.”
Boebert indicated, however, she would gladly act to force the issue again. “If I feel the impeachment inquiry that has been mentioned by the Speaker and other members of Congress is being slow-rolled,” she said, “I have no problem bringing articles of impeachment to the floor under a privileged motion and demanding a straight up and down vote.”
To Democrats, the rhetoric from Boebert and her allies—who have the power to call a vote to end McCarthy’s speakership—entirely explains his maneuvering on the issue.
“Anything that Kevin McCarthy says, I look at it this way: When the Freedom Caucus tells him to jump, the response is always, ‘How high?’” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee. “When they tell him they want to impeach, he’ll do it… If they tell him to jump off a bridge, he’ll do it.”
Before McCarthy’s shift this week, it was expected that House Republicans might move forward with impeaching Mayorkas as a way to quench the party’s zeal for at least some kind of impeachment action.
The Homeland Security Secretary, who has become a symbol on the right for the Biden administration’s handling of various crises at the U.S.-Mexico border, has been perhaps the GOP’s most hated administration official after Biden himself.
Many lawmakers have openly pushed for him to be impeached, alleging his performance in the job has amounted to “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the traditional standard for impeachment. No Cabinet official has been impeached in modern times, however, and some Republicans have openly said that “maladministration” is not grounds for impeachment.
According to CNN, however, McCarthy has been counseled against pursuing impeaching Mayorkas, with advisers arguing that the party should save its energy and focus on going after Biden himself.
But many Republicans are still clearly expecting action against Mayorkas. On Wednesday, the secretary appeared for testimony on Capitol Hill, where Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) told Mayorkas to his face that he looks forward to impeaching him.
Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK), who chairs the influential Republican Study Committee, released a memo on Tuesday which outlined the case for impeaching Mayorkas. He told The Daily Beast he did not believe that pursuing that project would take away from a campaign against Biden.
“They’re two independent investigations,” Hern said.
Impeaching Mayorkas might have been seen as a politically safer move for the dozens of Republican lawmakers who will have competitive reelections in 2024.
But moving forward with impeaching Biden—who won 18 congressional districts in 2020 now represented by Republicans—is being greeted with discomfort by members facing the most difficult races.
Potentially reflecting those concerns, Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), the chairman of the House GOP campaign arm tasked with protecting their majority, shut down impeachment talk on Tuesday. “No one is seriously talking about impeachment right now,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
Even Republicans who are glad to see impeachment movement realize they should tread carefully. After all, they vocally decried Democrats’ two impeachments of Donald Trump, arguing they were rushed processes that cheapened the importance of one of Congress’s most powerful weapons.
Shortly before Republicans took the majority in November 2022, McCarthy himself threw cold water on the prospect. "I think the country doesn’t like impeachment used for political purposes at all,” he said. “I think the country wants to heal.”
In talking to reporters this week, Republicans alluded to their past opposition of Democrats’ impeachment.
“I think if we’re ever going to look at anything with any current or future executive, executive branch person, we’ve got to be thorough,” said Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), a senior member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
Asked if he felt the evidence for impeachment rose to a serious level, Fleischmann demurred.
“I haven’t seen enough,” he said. “I haven’t really looked at it.”
Zachary Petrizzo contributed to this report.
