December 5, 2023
That was House Speaker Mike Johnson today. And yes – you heard him correctly – there will be a vote in the house next week to formally authorize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Now – you may be thinking – hasn’t this impeachment inquiry been underway for months already? Yes – yes it has. The process began back in September when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy using the power of his speakership authorized the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden – his foreign business activities prior to becoming the president and the actions of his family including his son hunter and his brother.
As I have reported several times – and as you heard the Speaker say an impeachment inquiry is not an impeachment like we saw with former president trump twice. By definition an impeachment inquiry is a theory in search of facts. The Republicans who started the inquiry have said they have a theory that President Biden was engaged in wrong doing but they need to investigate to find the facts to prove it so they can impeach him with those facts.
But since September – several things have been happening. And of course, the facts differ based on who you want to believe. The Republicans say – they haven’t quite found the smoking gun they need to actually bring an impeachment against the president and need to keep digging into Biden’s affairs. And they say at this point – the White House isn’t cooperating with their investigation. The White House says the Republicans can’t find anything to prove their theory about the President so they’re now claiming the White House is obstructing their investigation. The White House also claims the inquiry is unconstitutional because the House never voted to authorize it.
Now – for the record – the Democrats skipped the impeachment inquiry process all together – which is allowed — when they voted to impeach former President Trump the second time over his actions on January 6th. A fact – the Republicans point out all the time.
But let’s put all that aside – because the new House Speaker says he doesn’t what there to be any question about the constitutional authority his republicans members have to move forward with this impeachment inquiry.
Now there’s a real political calculation that has to be made with this vote next week. As I told you in this video – the after the House expelled George Santos the Republican majority was cut down to just three votes. And there are handful of vulnerable Republicans who won their seat in districts President Biden won. So those members have to weigh whether or not to vote yes to move forward with this impeachment inquiry or jeopardize reelection in 2024. It’s dilemma the Speaker is trying to persuade them isn’t a problem right now.
