McCarthy Fights Against Biden Impeachment Behind Closed Doors, Says it 'Undercuts' Agenda: Report
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly is seeking to steer Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert’s impeachment resolution against President Joe Biden into a House committee, saying the time is not right for the floor vote the Colorado congresswoman wanted.
In a Tuesday speech on the House floor proposing what’s called a privileged motion that would force a vote on articles of impeachment she filed against Biden, Boebert said the president’s border crisis shows he “acted in a manner grossly incompatible with the rule of law,” according to USA Today.
On Wednesday, speaking behind closed doors to fellow Republicans, McCarthy opposed going forward with impeaching the president, according to CNN, which cited sources it did not name.
“I think to prematurely bring something up like that, to have no background in it, it undercuts what we’re doing” in various committees, the California congressman said.
“What majority do we want to be? Give it right back in two years or hold it for a decade and make real change?” he said.
According to The Associated Press, the House will vote Thursday to send the resolution to the Homeland Security and Judiciary committees.
Boebert told the AP that if there was no action after her resolution reached those committees, she would bring her resolution back to the House floor “every day for the rest of my time here in Congress.”
Several Republicans said Boebert leapfrogged a process that needs to be in place to build a case.
“I just think running something on the floor isn’t fair to the American public without making the case and making the argument,” McCarthy said, according to ABC News.
“She’s on Oversight. She should work through Oversight and this investigation. I think we’re much stronger when we work as a team,” he said, referring to the House Oversight Committee, which is currently investigating the Biden family’s finances.
“We won’t use impeachment for political purposes. We will follow our investigations exactly as we say we would. We’re uncovering something new every day,” the speaker said.
Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky offered similar comments.
“I don’t like how she presented it by bypassing the committee process, especially when the investigation in the Oversight Committee, which she’s on, is producing new information almost daily,” Comer told Fox News.
“I feel like we’ve got some more work to do on the Oversight Committee before we issue a report, then once we issue a report, depending on what’s in that report, then the Judiciary Committee would be the committee that would then have hearings on any potential wrongdoing and potential impeachment,” he said. “So I wish she had gone about it a different way.”
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said the GOP majority cannot mimic the Democratic majority.
“I think the previous majority cheapened impeachment. I think it was politicized. This shouldn’t be playground games,” he said.
“This should be serious, should go through the Judiciary Committee or Oversight Committee. And if there [are] real facts for impeachment, then you go there, but doing this is wrong,” Bacon said.
In a statement to USA Today, Boebert said, “Impeachment is personal to every Coloradan who lost a loved one to fentanyl.”
“Coloradans know that Joe Biden needs to be impeached. Under his unconstitutional dereliction of duty at the border, our state has been overrun by crime and drug overdoses,” she said.
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