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The last time House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sat down with Fox News’ Sean Hannity was two weeks ago, and at the time, the California Republican made some news. It was in this interview when the GOP leader suggested the House would be justified initiating an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, despite the inconvenient fact the party hasn’t uncovered any evidence of wrongdoing against the Democratic incumbent.
With this in mind, McCarthy returned to Hannity’s program this week, and as The Hill reported, his remarks led the White House to accuse the speaker of “lying.”
Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office, dug into McCarthy’s Fox News appearance Monday evening, saying he “continued lying about President Biden — making a series of plainly false, widely debunked attacks in order to promote the extreme far right’s baseless impeachment stunt that even some members of McCarthy’s own caucus are expressing concerns about pursuing.”
Team Biden’s concerns were hardly unreasonable. McCarthy told viewers, for example, that a “Russian oligarch” gave the Biden family $3.5 million, which is a stale claim that was discredited years ago. In the same interview, the House speaker insisted the FBI “didn’t act” on highly dubious anti-Biden bribery claims, which was equally wrong given the extensive information we’ve already seen pointing in the opposite direction.
After the show, McCarthy turned to social media to add that the Democratic president “lied about his own involvement in a pay-to-play scheme,” which might be interesting if Republicans had any evidence to substantiate such a claim. But since they don’t, the House speaker probably ought to try to be a little more responsible.
Stepping back, the larger question isn’t whether McCarthy is making false claims, it’s why he’s making false claims.
Chances are, we’ll probably never know the Republican’s genuine motivations. Perhaps the House speaker has been told by assorted voices in his party what to say, and he’s in too weak a position to refuse. Maybe McCarthy has convinced himself that some of his strange talking points actually have merit.
Either way, the GOP congressman appears to be laying the groundwork for a misguided partisan goal. As HuffPost explained:
House Republicans may soon pull the trigger on the ultimate weapon they can wield against President Joe Biden: impeachment. The party’s itch for revenge over the dual impeachments of former President Donald Trump is leading them headlong toward pursuing the same thing, despite repeatedly failing to deliver evidence of Biden’s purported wrongdoing, and despite the risk of an electoral backlash.
Indeed, during his latest chat with Hannity, McCarthy again talked up the merits of “an impeachment inquiry,” which he said would give lawmakers the ability “to get the answers they need.”
Of course, given that they already have the answers they need, and many Republicans will never be satisfied, no matter how many facts they receive, McCarthy’s line still needs some work.
Nevertheless, GOP lawmakers continue to barrel down a ridiculous path. In fact, CNN reported this week House Republicans have privately said that “if they don’t move forward with an impeachment inquiry now, it will create the impression that House Republicans have essentially cleared Biden of any wrongdoing.”
The logic behind this approach is truly incredible. Republicans want to advance an impeachment inquiry against Biden, but they don’t have any evidence. So they’re prepared to launch an impeachment inquiry anyway, in the hopes that it will prevent people from noticing that they don’t have the evidence needed to justify an impeachment inquiry.
All of this is slated to unfold in the coming months. Watch this space.