Some Extremists Insist On A Vote Now With No Hearings Or Evidence
Looks like Trump sent the demand to his stooges in the House that Biden be impeached through his #1 lackey, Elise Stefanik (R-NY). Yesterday, Meridith McGraw and Alex Isenstadt reported that Stefanik has been yacking it up with Señor Trumpanzee weekly, which helps explain why she "was the first member of Republican leadership to come out in support of impeachment." He’s also discussed it with another of his flunkies, Marjorie Traitor Greene, as recently as Sunday night at Bedminster, where the two had dinner. He’s been holding the possibility of a position on his ticket over both their heads.
The two reporters noted that “the extent of his private involvement in encouraging House Republicans to plow forward with the process shows the influence he continues to wield inside the party as its likely presidential nominee. It could also spark further attacks from Biden’s camp that impeachment is being done merely to bloody him up before the election.”
Anyway, McCarthy announced the opening of an official impeachment inquiry— not enough to get him off the hook with the fascist wing, but giving the more mainstream conservatives a chance to avoid a vote on a lose-lose proposition— at least for now. McCarthy probably wouldn’t have been able to get an impeachment resolution passed— the only way to make an impeachment inquiry even legal— because he could only have afforded to lose 4 votes and there are more than that who have said, publicly or privately, that they would vote against it.
Olivia Beavers spoke with one centrist who told her that “flagging GOP support for an inquiry vote was communicated to McCarthy— underscoring that some Republicans are leery that the party's investigations have so far not yielded a direct link between the president and his son Hunter’s business dealings…
Less than two weeks ago, McCarthy told Breitbart that he would hold a vote on launching an impeachment inquiry. On Tuesday after his announcement, a McCarthy spokesman confirmed no plans to hold a vote… Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) said he assumes that his party's centrists ‘are happy they don’t have to vote on’ an impeachment inquiry, describing it as a ‘tough vote.’ But he also recalled hearing his constituents push for one ‘every single day.’” [North Dakota is one of the most politically backward states in the country. Of the state’s 53 counties, just two— both part of Indian reservations— rejected Trump. He won the state with 65.1% of the vote, Biden’s 4th worst showing, worse than any Confederate state.]
In terms of not being off the hook with the fascist wing, members of the “Freedom” Caucus are still demanding very extreme policy conditions before they agree not to shut down the government— policy conditions McCarthy couldn’t even get McConnell to agree to, let alone Schumer or Biden. Half a dozen of the most outspoken fascists, Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Bob Good (R-VA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Dan Bishop (R-NC) and Chip Roy (R-TX) are still on the warpath. In fact Jordain Carney reported yesterday that Gaetz “ramped up his threats to Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s grip on the gavel. During a floor speech and a subsequent phone call with reporters, Gaetz warned that the Californian was ‘out of compliance’ with agreements House Republicans made during the leadership race and that it could spark an attempt to strip his gavel. He specially threatened McCarthy with a motion to vacate the chair vote if he doesn’t do what the “Freedom” Caucus is demanding and made it clear that a “clean” CR is a no-go… and would trigger an immediate vacate the chair resolution. Gaetz: “If Kevin McCarthy puts a continuing resolution on the floor, it’s going to shot-chaser. Continuing resolution— motion to vacate.”
One of the worst of the QAnon crackpots, Lauren Boebert, is demanding that the House Republicans forgo investigations and just vote to impeach Biden immediately. “I am not waiting throughout the rest of this Congress to hold Joe Biden and the rest of his family accountable. I’m ready for a straight up and down vote on the floor.”
Back to McCarthy, the member who probably hates him most in Congress, Virginia neo-Nazi Bob Good, said his impeachment announcement “gives him no— zero— cushion, relief, brace, as it applies to spending… January was about us not doing what we’ve always done and expected we’ll get a different result. January was about us when we have the majority not passing major spending bills with the majority of Democrat votes.” Dan Bishop is on the same page— shutting down the government and impeachment are “independent of one another. So I don't think it has any such effect, from my perspective. To me, the commencement of an impeachment inquiry is overdue. It has been moving far too slowly. It shows tentativeness and hesitancy when it needs to show commitment to getting to it.” Ralph Norman explained what that means: “We’re gonna use our votes to defund as many things as we can.”
Chip Roy, one of the ringleaders, agrees with Good and Gaetz that McCarthy went back on his word to them. “We haven’t done what we agreed to do. We talked about passing a balanced budget. We’ve talked about actually passing a budget. We haven’t done that. We talked about having term limits, bringing the bill to the floor. We haven’t done that.”
Before dawn today, the PunchBowl crew reported that many of the GOP incumbents in swing districts are going along with the Freedom Caucus fascists— as they always do. “[T]he majority of those we spoke to on Tuesday said they supported the inquiry. These moderates said the fact-finding mission was an appropriate step in investigating Biden. ‘I think that there’s been enough preliminary work here to absolutely justify going forward with an inquiry,’ said Rep. John Duarte (R-CA), who represents a district Biden won by 11 points. ‘So I think it’s a great middle step. Let’s just get all the facts out and then decide what goes forward from there.’ Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY), one of Democrats’ top targets in 2024, seems comfortable, as well. Here’s what Molinaro told us: ‘I’m satisfied that this is the appropriate next step in ensuring that we provide the appropriate oversight and checks and balances.’” Senate Republicans were less impressed. They don’t see any credible evidence and think Congress should doing real work instead.
Mondaire Jones gave a master class to Democratic candidates running against panic-stricken Republican incumbents in swing districts, like his own opponent, Mike Lawler in a blue-leaning district that spans Rockland and Westchester counties in New York's Hudson Valley.
“Mike Lawler’s first vote was to elect Kevin McCarthy Speaker. Less than a month ago, Congressman Mike Lawler praised the MAGA-fueled investigations of Jim Jordan and James Comer, who have lied about President Biden to lay the groundwork for a baseless, partisan impeachment. While Lawler feigns moderation, he is all too happy to let the inmates run the asylum if Kevin McCarthy and the other extreme MAGA Republicans tell him to.
"The chickens are now coming home to roost. Regardless of how Lawler postures on impeachment, he supports and enables the far-right congressmembers who are leading the country down a dangerous path, instead of improving the lives of the people of the lower Hudson Valley. As I have said before, Mike Lawler is not a serious person and his unseriousness is costing us.”