This week, spineless House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in fear of being ousted from his precious leadership position by far-right hostage-takers like Florida’s Rep. Matt Gaetz and Georgia’s Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, caved to pressure to mount an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden — based on little more than conjecture, conspiracy theory and pure political vengeance.
The decision seemed hasty — McCarthy had initially promised not to call for the inquiry without a vote from the House. That followed criticism from McCarthy of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her preceding without a vote on the 2019 impeachment inquiry of former President Donald Trump for his actions related to Ukraine (remember Trump’s “perfect” phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy?)
When asked whether he was being hypocritical — an obvious and rhetorical question — McCarthy dug in:
“I’m not, because she changed the precedent. I warned her not to do it that way in the process. And that’s what she did. That’s what we did.”
But McCarthy’s nothing if not craven and power-hungry. And he did what he had to do to stay in power.
Gaetz was threatening to move to vacate McCarthy from his speakership, which he only narrowly won after 15 grueling votes, while Greene was promising to shut down the government if she didn’t get her impeachment inquiry.
If these people sound like children, it’s because they behave no better than children. They’re not there to govern or solve real problems for Americans, they’re there to grandstand, get famous, make money, out Trump each other, and play these kinds of childish games.
To prove just how pointless this all is, here are all the reasons the impeachment of Biden is destined to go absolutely nowhere:
McCarthy doesn’t have the support.
There’s a reason he chose not to hold a vote on an impeachment inquiry, as he initially promised to do. He doesn’t have the votes for starting up this impeachment.
There are as many as 30 House Republicans who do not believe there’s enough evidence of wrongdoing to impeach Biden. Among them, Rep. Dave Joyce of Ohio says he is “not seeing facts or evidence” that would merit an impeachment inquiry. South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson says, “there is a constitutional and legal test that you have to meet with evidence,” and he has “not seen that evidence.” Rep. French Hill from Arkansas says House Republicans haven’t “even remotely completed their work on the kind of detailed investigations and quality work” necessary for impeachment.
Despite all of these reservations, McCarthy is charging on. If he doesn’t prove any of the allegations against Biden, he won’t have the votes to impeach either.
McCarthy doesn’t have the evidence.
As noted above, Republicans are hesitant to walk down the impeachment road because there’s simply no evidence that Joe Biden meets the bar of having committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” while he was vice president.
In a new 14-page dossier released by the White House, Biden’s team breaks down all of the claims by Republicans against the president — that he engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national, that the Biden administration interfered with an investigation into his son Hunter, that he got a Ukrainian prosecutor general fired to help Hunter’s business deals, etc.
Citing FBI sources, independent investigations, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, House Republicans, Trump administration officials, and Republicans’ own witnesses, the report systematically debunks each and every claim.
If McCarthy and Republicans don’t trust the White House’s sourcing, they should probably trust their own witnesses.
Biden can use a Trump-era rule.
In January of 2020, Trump’s Justice Department declared that impeachment inquiries by the House are invalid unless it takes a formal vote.
“Not only is it still on the books,” per a Politico report, “it is binding on the current administration as it responds to Tuesday’s announcement by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to authorize an impeachment inquiry into Biden, again without a vote.”
Seems like Biden can thank Trump for this one.
It’s politically perilous.
With Biden’s flagging polling numbers, there’s nothing like a politically-motivated impeachment inquiry to motivate Democratic voters. And Republicans risk turning off their own voters in moderate districts where there’s little appetite for these kinds of stunts while real problems go unsolved.
The only thing this does accomplish is keep McCarthy the speaker, for now anyway. Despite caving to his unruly House members, Gaetz is still threatening to oust McCarthy, even minutes after he announced his impeachment inquiry.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp Unfiltered” on CNN.
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