Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced at a press conference on Tuesday that he plans to hold a vote next week on launching a formal impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden. The move comes in response to White House stonewalling the preliminary impeachment investigation launched by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in September. As Jim Hoft noted on Monday at TGP, the House is running out of time to vote on impeaching Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas before a month long break for the holidays.
Johnson explained his rationale for having a floor vote on an impeachment inquiry of Biden at a press conference Tuesday:
“So, we have come to this sort of inflection point, because Chad (Pergram) right now the White House is um, is, is stonewalling that investigation. They’re refusing to turn over key witnesses to allow them to testify as they’ve been subpoenaed. They’re refusing to turn over thousands of documents from the National Archives. And the House has no choice: If it’s gonna follow his constitutional responsibility to formally adopt an impeachment inquiry on the floor, so that when the subpoenas are challenged in court, we’ll be at the apex of our constitutional authority. It will be a movement, uh, of, a vote of the full House and that will let us to continue and continue on on pace. This vote is not a vote to impeach President Biden. This is a vote to continue the inquiry of impeachment, and that’s a necessary constitutional step and I believe we’ll get every vote that we (need).”
Excerpt transcribed by TGP.
.@SpeakerJohnson (R-LA): “The House has no choice, if it’s going to follow its constitutional responsibility, to formally adopt an impeachment inquiry on the floor so that when the subpoenas are challenged in court, we’ll be at the apex of our constitutional authority.” pic.twitter.com/PWjBydib8U
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 5, 2023
In September, lacking GOP votes for a formal inquiry, McCarthy established an impeachment inquiry of Biden without a vote of the House, invoking a precedent set by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) for impeaching President Trump. Three House committees were appointed by McCarthy to head the impeachment inquiry: Judiciary, Oversight and Ways & Means. Those committees have continued their impeachment inquiry under Speaker Johnson. However the White House is refusing to cooperate because the inquiry was not authorized by a vote of the House.
The three impeachment committees released an interim report on Tuesday about preferential treatment shown first son Hunter Boden by the Justice department and Special Counsel David Weiss:
🚨#NEWS: @GOPoversight, @WaysandMeansGOP, and @JudiciaryGOP Release Report Revealing David Weiss and DOJ’s Preferential Treatment of Hunter Biden
Read it here: https://t.co/iUEY39CfzE
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) December 5, 2023
A handful of moderate Republicans have been reluctant to vote for a Biden impeachment inquiry. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that those members were confronted by constituents over the recent Thanksgiving break who were demanding they vote to impeach Biden. Apparently, enough of those members have changed their minds for Speaker Johnson to set a vote next week.
James Comer tells Maria Bartiromo that moderate House Republicans are more willing to to vote for a Biden impeachment inquiry now because they went home over Thanksgiving and heard from their constituents at Walmart pic.twitter.com/gavFiabw0Y
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 3, 2023
CNN’s Manu Rahu confirmed the change of heart, “House GOP leaders announce they will have a vote next week to authorize their impeachment inquiry into Biden. Several members from swing districts indicating they will vote YES for inquiry but not sold on backing articles of impeachment”
House GOP leaders announce they will have a vote next week to authorize their impeachment inquiry into Biden. Several members from swing districts indicating they will vote YES for inquiry but not sold on backing articles of impeachment
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 5, 2023
There is a small chance the vote could take place this week, according to a report by NBC News, but that is not likely (excerpt):
Republican leaders said Tuesday the House will likely vote to formalize their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden next week — the last week the chamber is scheduled to be in session before lawmakers leave for the holidays.
There was a small possibility the vote could take place this week, but Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., both said the vote — if it happens — would occur “next week” as the leaders left a closed-door meeting of House Republicans.
With the expulsion of former rep. George Santos (R-NY) last week, Republicans have an even tighter majority over the Democrats, 221 to 213, and could only spare three votes.
Complete remarks by Speaker Johnson at Tuesday’s presser:
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