On Tuesday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled an openness to impeach Joe Biden for the first time since the GOP won the majority last year. Despite the trove of evidence of corruption, McCarthy has been reluctant to take any action that might simply appear retaliatory after Democrats impeached Donald Trump twice over weak allegations.
But the evidence acquired by the Republican majority on the House Oversight Committee has clearly been compelling enough to get McCarthy to sing a different tune. There are credible witnesses, including an FBI informant, IRS whistleblowers, and a paper trail proving illicit payments to Biden family shell companies and evidence interference by the Biden Department of Justice.
“We’ve only followed where the information has taken us,” McCarthy told Sean Hannity on Monday. “This is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed. Because this president has also used something we have not seen since Richard Nixon, used the weaponization of government to benefit his family and deny Congress the ability to have the oversight.”
On Tuesday, McCarthy doubled down on launching an impeachment inquiry, revealing the red line that will trigger it.
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“What I’ve said is, if they withhold information, the impeachment inquiry allows Congress to have the apex of power to get all the information they need. All this information people are finding out now is only because Republicans have investigated,” McCarthy told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
McCarthy said that if he believes the White House is obstructing their investigation by withholding information, “I will go to impeachment inquiry to make sure we get all the answers,” he said.
“What we’re looking [at] right now is getting an answer to the questions and seeing, did [Attorney General Merrick] Garland lie to the American public or not? We know what has been said in these meetings, and we’re going to get the answers,” he said.
This is perhaps a very prudent move on McCarthy’s part because it’s a warning to the White House they better play ball and give the Oversight Committee the information they request or it will be treated like a cover-up, thus removing any questions about impeaching Biden over crimes he committed before becoming president. An active cover-up removes that from the equation.
Still, as promising as this shift is, should we feel confident that impeachment will occur? I still have my doubts. In June, in the wake of evidence that the DOJ intervened in the Hunter Biden probe, McCarthy claimed that he’d launch an impeachment inquiry against Merrick Garland by July 6. That didn’t happen.
We’ve talked about Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s impeachment over the border crisis for a long time now without any discernible action on the part of the House GOP. Even when McCarthy wasn’t interested in impeaching Biden, he talked tough about Mayorkas, even warning him earlier this year to resign or face an impeachment inquiry.
Well, where’s that impeachment inquiry?
See, I want to believe that McCarthy will follow through, but so far, he’s given me no reason to believe he actually will.
