In a move that some could view as a sign they are worried about what’s ahead, the White House recently issued a warning to Republicans in the House that if they move forward with a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, it will backfire and cause even more fractures in a conference that is already suffering from major divides.
The warning comes at a time when it’s looking more and more likely that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will officially move forward with impeachment inquiries. The speaker has given some signals that the process could begin as early as this month.
Multiple members of the House have been pining for impeachment inquiries into the president to begin for months now. Some have even filed official impeachment papers, hoping they would advance out of the committee stage, though none have as of yet.
The main subject of the impeachment inquiries centers around the president’s involvement in his son, Hunter’s, foreign business dealings. Many Republican representatives have said that Hunter used the ties that his father had at the time – when he was serving as vice president – so Hunter could win various business deals in Ukraine.
Some conservatives in the House have also been itching to get back at Democrats for what they believe were two politically-motivated impeachments into former President Donald Trump.
Despite all the threats from the GOP, the White House has remained very confident that if an inquiry were to move forward, it would ultimately hurt the Republican Party more than it would end up hurting the president.
Just last week, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House, said:
“This baseless impeachment exercise would be a disaster for congressional Republicans, and don’t take our word for it: Just listen to the chorus of their fellow Republicans who admit there is no evidence for their false allegations and that pursuing such a partisan stunt will ‘backfire.’”
Over the summer, McCarthy has apparently flirted with starting an impeachment inquiry once Congress returns from its summer break. But, the White House hasn’t been afraid to speak out against those efforts by putting out various statements and memos criticizing the idea.
White House aides have specifically called out some Republican representatives, including Don Bacon of Nebraska, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Lawler of New York and Ken Buck of Colorado.
A source who is familiar with how the White House is approaching the situation recently commented to media outlet The Hill:
“The White House sees highlighting the divisions within the Republican caucus as a way to further show that these half-baked efforts are little more than a political stunt and driven by their extreme right-wing flank.”
McCarthy only has a slim majority in the House, which means that he’ll need the support of just about every member of his party for a successful impeachment inquiry to take place.
Steve Israel, a former Democratic congressman from New York, recently commented on this when he said:
“Some people say he’s (McCarthy) threading a needle. I think he’s threading a quantum atom. A needle is easy. This is a whole new level.
“When you’ve got a four-vote majority right now, it’s a whole new level of maneuvering.”
