'It’s a joke': House Republicans skeptical of McCarthy’s impeachment push

14 September 2023

Republicans in the United States House of Representatives are concerned that Speaker Kevin McCarthy's (R-California) impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden could be a "self-inflicted wound," The Daily Beast's Deputy Politics Editor Sam Brodey reports.

"The politically dangerous impeachment quest could, at last, represent a bargain that McCarthy cannot afford," Brodey writes.

Congressman Ken Buck (R-Colorado), for instance, believes that "the decision to move forward with the inquiry—without holding a full floor vote to authorize it" is a potential blow that McCarthy cannot afford to take, Brodey explains.

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"When he used the term impeachment inquiry… now we have set expectations with the activists who are expecting an impeachment. When he used the term impeachment inquiry… now we have set expectations with the activists who are expecting an impeachment," Buck said. "It doesn't matter what the facts are," Buck added. "They want us to move forward."

Buck stressed, however, that McCarthy is "under a lot of pressure to act" and that “he's the one that raised the issue of impeachment. Everybody on the outside wants to talk about it, let them talk about it—we have an institution and we have to keep it moving."

But Buck's primary worry, per Brodey, is, "How do you go to Democrats and say, 'I need your vote on the [continuing government funding resolution],' right after I've said, 'I'm going to beat your president?' It's crazy."

Brodey notes that "the deep irony of the GOP's impeachment push is that McCarthy and Republicans themselves made many of the arguments against Democrats in [former President Donald] Trump's first impeachment that they are fielding now."

Yet Buck is not the only conservative lawmaker openly doubting McCarthy's strategy.

House Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma) told the Beast that "if there's no there there, then there's no there there," adding, "Then we say 'Hey, you were right, we were wrong, let's move on down the road.'"

Congressman Dan Bishop (R-North Carolina) also expressed skepticism about impeaching the incumbent commander-in-chief.

"I wouldn't be pre-committed to a course of action," Bishop conceded. "Most of my base voters that I encounter want me to do something up here, but nobody's ever told me you just do it, regardless what the facts are. I haven't heard it that way. They'd like to have an explanation why nobody's doing anything, apparently, about a number of things, from their perspective."

Meanwhile, Buck called a potential Biden impeachment trial in the Senate "a joke," asking rhetorically, "What evidence do you present that there is a connection between Hunter Biden's activities and Joe Biden at this point? It's a joke."

View Brodey's analysis at this link (subscription required).

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