Senate Republicans did not react enthusiastically to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) expressing a willingness to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden.
The House speaker initially said in a Monday evening Fox News appearance that information House committees uncovered through their Biden family investigations “is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry.” Clarifying himself to reporters on Tuesday morning, McCarthy said that while the inquiries had yet to prove the most serious allegations against the president, an impeachment inquiry would provide investigators with the tools to get answers.
PROGRESSIVE PETRI DISH: MINNESOTA GOP HITS RESET AFTER RECENT SHELLACKING
“How do you get to the bottom of the truth? The only way Congress can do that is go to an impeachment inquiry,” he told reporters, adding at another point that, “As more of this continues to unravel, it rises to the level of an impeachment inquiry.”
McCarthy also said at the Tuesday presser that his remarks the night before were not an announcement of any official impeachment inquiry and that House GOP investigators were not operating with any specific timeline.
Despite the walk-back, a number of Senate Republicans expressed weariness at the idea of a third presidential impeachment in under four years.
Leaving the weekly GOP leadership meeting Tuesday afternoon, Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) said the issue of a potential Biden impeachment “didn’t come up; it’s not on the radar screen over here.”
“You’d have to have the argument. It’s a high threshold,” Thune explained of impeachments. “I assume they’d have to have the evidence and some process where they, at least, get that evidence.”
“Clearly, the statements they’re making would lead me to believe they have evidence or they think they have evidence that could reach that threshold of high crimes and misdemeanors,” he added of the House Republicans probing Biden. “But, you know, it’s a constitutional issue.”
Responding to a similar question about a possible impeachment while leaving the leadership meeting, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) noted, “It’s getting to be a habit around here, isn’t it?”
“Once you start, it’s unfortunate, but what goes around, comes around,” he continued. “Obviously, the stuff that the House is revealing about the Biden family business is very disturbing, but obviously, the Senate doesn’t have any role.”
“We’ve had a lot of those recently, haven’t we?” Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) said of House impeachment articles when asked by the Washington Examiner about McCarthy’s comments.
“I think that’s a very serious path to go down. And I warned in the last two impeachments that we can’t have snap impeachments or snap impeachment trials,” Young said. “So I would hope that before they resolve to go down this path, they’re thinking very, very seriously about whether or not this rises to that level of concern, as I’m sure the speaker will.”
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who would be a critical swing vote in a Senate impeachment trial, said that “The bar [for impeachment] is high crimes and misdemeanors, and that hasn’t been alleged at this stage, but we’ll see what develops. I certainly hope that’s not going to confront us again.”
Romney was the only member of his party to vote to convict former President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial. He also voted to convict in the second, though he was not the sole GOP defection in that case.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told the Washington Examiner that he would “certainly take a look at” what House Republicans produce, should they deliver the Senate impeachment articles. Still, he noted that he would not “support impeaching someone because I don’t like their politics, but that’s not what Speaker McCarthy said.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Given the quality of the evidence, I do think that the House [Democrats] cheapened the impeachment process,” Kennedy said. “Now, there are some people on my side of the aisle who operate under the premise that two wrongs don’t make a right, but they do make it even. And I don’t subscribe to that.”
“I don’t think that anyone ought to be impeached unless there is substantial evidence of a high crime or misdemeanor. I don’t want to see our country become a banana republic whose Powerball jackpot is 287 chickens on-the-go. This is America. Our institutions matter.”
