Top Republicans resist the idea of impeachment: While some of the top MAGA figures in Congress have been trying to impeach Joe Biden for most of his presidency, now there are indications that the Republican leadership in the House, as well as many top senators, want no part of an impeachment effort.
Joe Biden Impeachment? Not So Fast
Every since the start of President Biden’s administration, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other MAGA-associated members of Congress have been trying to impeach the president.
This week, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) attempted a maneuver that would require all of the House of Representatives to vote on impeachment.
That led to an actual fight on the floor of the House between Greene and Boebert.
Throughout it all, none of the impeachment attempts have moved forward, with there being little indication that the House Republican leadership was on board.
This week, that’s become a bit more clear.
Per the Associated Press, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told his caucus in a meeting this week that he “encouraged lawmakers to consider the traditional process for bringing such consequential legislation forward.” This led to the Boebert “privileged motion” to impeach Joe Biden being referred to a committee.
The AP story added that rank-and-file members of the Republican caucus are “angry at being forced into the position of having to vote on a resolution to impeach Biden even though they had not gone through the traditional process of an impeachment inquiry.”
Meanwhile, GOP members of the House have introduced legislation to expunge Trump’s two impeachments. Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is a member of the House leadership, sponsored the legislation to expunge Trump’s second impeachment, over his actions on January 6,
Meanwhile, Axios reported this week that the Senate Republican leadership is less than enamored with the idea of impeachment as well.
“I don’t know what they’re basing the president’s impeachment on. We’ll see what they do. I can’t imagine going down that road,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) told Axios.
“I’d rather focus on the policy agenda, the vision for the future and go on and win elections,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) said in the Axios story.
“The House will handle their own business and I’m not going to try to tell them what to do,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) told Axios. “We have lots of things that we need to get involved with to take care of the business of the country right now.”
“Impeachment is a serious process. It takes time. It takes evidence,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said in the Axios story. “If they map out a credible timeline, and that’s not something I expect to see in the next month … I’ll take a look at it.”
And while the GOP is currently pushing the unverified FBI document involving bribery accusations against President Biden as a major, historical scandal, the various impeachment pushes have nothing to do with that.
Why Impeachment Now?
The Boebert resolution is about Biden’s handling of the border, while there is also a similar push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for similar reasons, despite border policy not fitting into the definition of “high crimes and misdemeanors” that is required for impeachment.
Per New York magazine’s El Kilgore, Boebert’s gambit was especially embarrassing for Speaker McCarthy and the GOP leadership.
“This was embarrassing for McCarthy, as Boebert’s resolution (1) had no chance of passage given the House GOP’s extremely narrow margin of control and (2) circumvented the ‘regular order’ that Republicans are supposed to revere and that Democrats observed when impeaching Donald Trump twice,” Kilgore wrote.
The House Democratic leadership in Congress, during the Trump years, had initially resisted the idea of impeaching Trump, especially during the Mueller era, with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi specifically resisting the idea in interviews at the time. However, the leadership got on board once news broke of Trump’s phone call to President Zelensky of Ukraine, leading to the former president’s first impeachment.
Expertise and Experience
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
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