During Congress’ lengthy summer break, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy dropped unsubtle hints about what to expect when members returned to Capitol Hill. The question wasn’t whether he’d launch a baseless, evidence-free impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden, but rather, when and how the California Republican would begin the process.
On Sept. 1, the House speaker told the public exactly what to expect. “To open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter, and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives,” McCarthy told Breitbart News. “That’s why, if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.”
The language was categorical. It left no wiggle room. If an impeachment inquiry were to happen, the House speaker declared, it’d have to be approved by a majority of House members. Period. Full stop.
Eleven days later, McCarthy did the opposite. As The New York Times summarized:
Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday directed top congressional Republicans to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, reversing his previous stance that such an investigation should be initiated only with a vote of the House.
McCarthy’s original position was the one he’d espoused for years. In fact, the GOP leader published a tweet in September 2019 — a missive that’s still online as of this morning — that insisted Democratic leaders couldn’t simply make a unilateral decision to initiate an impeachment process, because it “requires a full vote of the House of Representatives.”
Soon after, McCarthy wrote that the House must “intend to hold a vote of the full House authorizing an impeachment inquiry,” or it “would create a process completely devoid of any merit or legitimacy.”
The funny thing is that the House speaker had a rhetorical way out of this: McCarthy could’ve simply said he would follow the precedent House Democrats set during Donald Trump’s first impeachment. It would’ve been easy for the Republican leader to say, “Well, I pushed for a system that relied on an authorization vote, but I lost that fight, and we’ll move forward accordingly.”
But McCarthy didn’t say anything of the kind. Instead, he did the opposite, insisting he’d stick to his principles — right before the House speaker cast those principles aside.
I kept waiting for the GOP leader to at least try to justify the brazen flip-flop, but he didn’t. There were no talking points. There was no explanation. In fact, at McCarthy’s announcement in the late morning, he told reporters about his plans, but he refused to answer any questions.
There is no great mystery about what happened here: McCarthy discarded his principles because he didn’t have the votes from his own members. But the House speaker doesn’t want to come right out and say that, and he can’t think of a credible defense, so he’s instead said nothing. It’s probably not how the Republican congressman wanted to initiate this ridiculous process. Postscript: Politico published a report that raised a few eyebrows late yesterday: “Joe Biden has a literal Trump card to play against the House’s new impeachment inquiry. In January 2020, the Donald Trump-led Justice Department formally declared that impeachment inquiries by the House are invalid unless the chamber takes formal votes to authorize them.” That’s interesting, but its practical value is limited: Opinions from the Office of Legal Counsel don’t carry any real legal weight for Congress, which tends not to care what the executive branch thinks about the legislative process. Update: This morning, McCarthy insisted he “never changed” his position, despite the fact that he obviously changed his position.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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