Former President Donald Trump taunted Democrats amid reports that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working to start the impeachment process against President Joe Biden next month.
“These Indictments and lawsuits are all part of my political opponents campaign plan. It is Election Interference, and they are going to use the DOJ/FBI to help them, which is illegal. Crooked Joe pushed this litigation hard to get it done. This is a new low in Presidential Politics. To the Democrats, I say, ‘be careful what you wish for,'” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
On Monday, CNN reported that McCarthy privately told some of his fellow Republicans that his plan is to start the Biden impeachment process in late September, according to unnamed GOP sources.
Pro-impeachment Republicans accuse Biden of using his status during his vice presidency to help his son Hunter Biden. The GOP alleged that Joe Biden profited from his son’s business dealings and that his administration has interfered in Hunter Biden’s criminal case. None of these allegations have been proven, and Joe Biden denies them.
Many House Republicans have threatened to start the impeachment process throughout Biden’s term. The threat of a Biden impeachment trial started even before his presidential inauguration. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) submitted an impeachment resolution on Biden’s first full day in office. Far-right Republicans have filed nine impeachment resolutions, with Greene filing over half; none have been successful.
Though McCarthy initially shut down impeachment attempts, this July he told Fox News host Sean Hannity the House’s investigations into Biden are “rising to the level of impeachment inquiry.”
There are questions as to whether opening an impeachment inquiry would require a floor vote, CNN reports. If McCarthy can avoid a floor vote, that would allow moderate GOP candidates to remain silent and avoid angering their constituents.
An impeachment inquiry provides the House with more power to investigate a president of potential wrongdoing. It’s not a necessary step in impeaching a president, and impeachment resolutions can be filed without an inquiry, for any reason. In Biden’s case, the filed resolutions have normally failed to make it out of committee, and those that made it to the House floor were voted down. Trump’s first impeachment was the result of an inquiry; his second, related to the events of January 6, 2021, however, was not.
Trump is facing a number of indictments over the 2020 election, but his poll numbers remain strong. Even in Georgia, where a grand jury indicted the former president earlier this month, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll released Tuesday shows Trump with a 42-point lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the second-place candidate.