Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is urging Republicans to focus on impeaching President Joe Biden — and forget about pursuing other lesser-known officials in his administration.
This week, Kevin McCarthy threatened an impeachment inquiry against the president for the first time, sending shockwaves through the party.
Biden now joins Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas is the third potential impeachment target Republicans have considered since winning a majority in Congress six months ago.
McCarthy has consulted with former President Newt Gingrich on Biden’s impeachment prospects, according to two sources familiar with the talks.
Gingrich, who has said he won’t get into his private talks with McCarthy, told DailyMail.com he favors moving forward with an investigation into Biden – and warned the House GOP to let it go Mayorkas and Garland.
“These are irrelevant. Don’t bother,” he told DailyMail.com. “Keep it for the big one.
Gingrich urged Republicans to focus on President Joe Biden and forget about other White House officials after Kevin McCarthy’s threats of an impeachment inquiry sent shockwaves through the party.
But Gingrich later told the Washington Post that impeaching the president and removing him from office would be a “terrible idea” because it would leave Vice President Kamala Harris in charge, whom he called “incompetent.”
When Republicans took control of the House, they promised not to “politicize” the impeachment process as they accused Democrats of doing with twice-impeached former President Donald Trump.
But this week, President McCarthy threatened to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
The House GOP leadership has pointed out that the primary reason for launching an investigation would be to give subpoenas more weight in their investigations into the Biden family’s shady business deals — and to circumvent Justice Department and government blockades. other agencies.
McCarthy insisted he was not ‘announcing’ an impeachment inquiry when he said investigations into Biden were ‘reaching the level of an impeachment inquiry’ – but that he would decide to do so. do based on the level of cooperation he would see.
Conference President Elise Stefanik went further Thursday morning, telling Fox Business that she would “absolutely” support an impeachment inquiry against the president.
But Mayorkas and Garland are still unclear.
Just before McCarthy rocked the conference throwing Biden into the potential impeachment mix, the House GOP’s largest caucus — the 173-member Republican Review Committee — called for Mayorkas’ impeachment.
Several House Republicans have already filed articles of impeachment against the Homeland Security Sec. – accusing him of having “failed” in his duty to secure the southern border.
McCarthy insisted he was not ‘announcing’ an impeachment inquiry when he said investigations into Biden ‘rise to the level of impeachment inquiry’
Gingrich says “don’t bother” impeaching AG Garland or DHS Sec. Alexander Mayorkas
On Wednesday, Mayorkas testified before the Judiciary Committee in what, at one point, was to be the unofficial kickoff to his impeachment proceedings. Instead, calls to have him removed have been muted.
Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan said days ago that his committee could move “at a fairly rapid pace” to remove Attorney General Merrick Garland, given testimony from two whistleblowers that the DOJ slowed an investigation into Hunter Biden and allowed the statute of limitations. run on tax crimes for political purposes.
Garland said he was not involved in the investigations into the president’s son.
The impeachment of any Cabinet official is largely symbolic – two-thirds of the Senate are expected to vote to convict anyone from office.
So Republicans could move forward with: impeach Biden over corruption allegations or his handling of the border, impeach Mayorkas or impeach Garland.
But can they really try to impeach three people at once?
“Republicans are going to realize that you only get one bite of an apple,” a House GOP insider told DailyMail.com. “Everyone knows who Biden is – maybe 50% of the country has heard of Garland, let alone Mayorkas. And the border isn’t as sexy as corruption.
On Wednesday, Majority Leader Steve Scalise challenged that.
“We’re going to keep coming out with the facts and we can do all of these things at the same time,” Scalise insisted in response to a question from DailyMail.com about trying to juggle three impeachment inquiries at once, “while we ‘re moving the legislative agenda, including appropriations.
When asked whether it would be better to move forward with a Biden impeachment inquiry on the border or corruption allegations, he insisted the House can do both. “It’s not in place of anything. We believe we can do many things at the same time.
“That’s ridiculous,” shot back a senior House GOP official.
“All of these investigations have to go through the courts, so you’re going to tell me the House Judiciary Committee is going to spend eight months impeaching people? That’s the rest of the legislative calendar.
But Homeland Security Chairman Mark Green said he will continue his five-part investigation into Mayorkas which he will present to the Judiciary Committee.
“My charge is to continue my investigation,” he told DailyMail.com. When asked if multiple inquiries could occur at the same time: “Oh, absolutely.”
Grassroots Republicans are divided over who to impeach — a sure sign that a potential investigation into Biden is in its early stages.
“Hopefully everyone will huddle around one and do it in the right order, I think it would be a bit too presumptuous to go after three people at once,” rep Max said. Miller, a Republican from Ohio and former top aide to Trump. , told DailyMail.com.
Miller said he thought it was “somewhat unlikely” that the president had committed serious crimes and misdemeanors, but impeachment of Garland would be the strongest case.
“I would start with Merrick Garland before anyone else because I think we live in a two-tier court system.”
Last week, two IRS whistleblowers said the Justice Department slowed the investigation of Hunter Biden and intentionally let the statute of limitations expire on some of his financial crimes.
Virginia Rep. Bob Good, a member of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, said the three officials “deserved” to be impeached, but eliminating Biden would get to the heart of the matter.
“Garland, the mayors are obviously executing President Biden’s policy. If they were to be removed from office, the president may well replace them with people who would carry out the same policies,” he said.
He said impeachment of the president for the border might even be a stronger case.
“I would say that never in the history of the country has the president done more harm to the United States than what this president has done to the border. How can we let him continue to do this for another year and a half? We no longer need an investigation to that effect,’ Good told DailyMail.com.
“Having said that, I also think we may be on the verge of uncovering the biggest political scandal in the history of the country,” he said, referring to Biden’s corruption allegations.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. — who introduced articles of impeachment for Biden over the border crisis last month — said she doesn’t care what direction the House takes with the impeachment as long as there’s a vote to impeach the president.
“I want upvote or downvote,” Boebert told DailyMail.com. “I’m okay with everything that’s happening.”
An up or down vote is a prospect that is almost certainly out of the question – saving moderates with a vote to impeach the president without a formal inquiry would be an easy way to lose a slim majority.
Several Republicans said after their weekly conference meeting that the speaker urged them to be careful when talking about Biden’s possible impeachment, mindful of the political connection he presents for members of the rotating district.
“He cautioned against jumping to conclusions on impeachment — that we would want us to follow the investigation wherever it goes,” said Rep. Kevin Hern, head of the Republican Review Committee.
“I think the President has been very consistent in what he’s said over the weeks and that we need to investigate, unlike the Democrats who just jumped to conclusions without even due process.”
GOP strategist John Feehery said Republicans must be careful not to let impeachment sway Democrats in the upcoming election.
“No matter who they impeach, history shows it has usually inflamed the base of the side you impeach.
“The more they talk about impeachment, the less effective it is as a tactic. Because of the very real corruption issues that come with the Biden family, I would focus on him. The other two are just plain incompetent,” he told DailyMail.com.
