WASHINGTON – Republicans are entering the impeachment cycle.
The House majority is starting the new year by aggressively pushing the current impeachment inquiry. President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Now, Republican lawmakers are making fresh impeachment threats against Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., announced articles of impeachment After Austin could not provide information He told the White House that he had been in the hospital for three days. Rosendale, who is considering a possible Senate run this year, declared Monday that Austin has “repeatedly violated his oath of office and endangered the lives of the American people.”
Later that evening, House Oversight Committee Chairman Garland, R-Ky., said in an interview with Newsmax that Garland could also face impeachment if the Justice Department does not charge Hunter Biden with contempt of Congress for failing to follow the law. challenge
Asked whether the failure to indict the president’s son, Hunter Biden, would be grounds for Garland’s impeachment, Comer said, “I think so.”
“We know how he treats two Republicans who are held in contempt of Congress,” Comer said. “Now he will have the opportunity to administer the same kind of justice as a Democrat who refuses a legal subpoena.”
Underneath lawIf the House votes on the contempt petition, it will go to the U.S. attorney with jurisdiction, not Garland.
All the House impeachment talk is overblown, even for some Senate Republicans who say they are focused on more important things this month, such as averting a government shutdown, beefing up border security and providing more aid to Ukraine and Israel.
“We have a lot of work to do,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a member of the party leadership. “I don’t think impeachment was such a thing [was] it is supposed to be brought up every three months or every two months.
The impeachment calls highlight how the once-rarely-used tool has become a rogue and frustrated tool for the House Republican Conference, which has struggled to impose its will on Democrats in the Senate and the White House.
While the House requires a simple majority to impeach an official, the Democratic-led Senate stands in the way of impeachment and removal, which requires a two-thirds majority.
“House Republicans view impeachment as a gift from an Oprah audience,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said. “They’re ignoring the Constitution for cheap, baseless political gimmicks instead of focusing on the issues that really matter to Americans, and that clearly shows how extreme they’ve become.”
Schumer calls it “absurd” and “ridiculous.”
The House committee is already taking the initiative Impeachment proceedings against Mayorkasand Republicans voted unanimously before the holiday Make the impeachment inquiry against Biden official.
Wednesday will be a big day on the impeachment front. The Homeland Security Committee will hold its first impeachment hearing on Majorca, focusing on how his border policy affects states. This is a necessary step before the panel can record a resolution of impeachment and send it to the floor for an expected vote.
On that day, the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees will make a decision. Hunter Biden in Contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to compel him to testify behind closed doors. (Biden Jr. insisted he would testify only in public.)
In the most consequential of four potential impeachments, House Republicans have stepped up their impeachment inquiry with the power to subpoena the president amid allegations that his son may have benefited from foreign business rackets. They have not presented direct evidence of wrongdoing by Biden or shown a high crime or wrongdoing to impeach him.
“The bottom line is that what the Republicans are doing in the House is just absurd. I think the American people will see it as ridiculous and a huge negative,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters about a possible Biden impeachment trial.
Sen. John F. Kennedy, R-La., said, “I have no idea,” when asked how many votes it would take to convict Biden in the Senate.
In recent days, House Republicans have targeted Majorca, describing it as a symbol of the Biden administration’s inability to control a country. Increase in migrants crossing the southern border illegally. Hard-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., unsuccessfully tried to impeach the Mayorkas last year. But that was only recently, for a while journey to the borderSpeaker Mike Johnson, R-La. and his deputies, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., announced their support for the impeachment effort by Majorca.
One GOP senator poured cold water on Rosendale’s push to impeach Austin, a close friend and ally of Biden, who has White House support but has faced numerous GOP calls to resign because of his hospitalization. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., argued that Rosendale filed articles of impeachment simply to generate publicity and campaign money for a potential Senate bid (which the party’s official campaign arm opposes).
“I don’t put any stock in what Rosendale did. … Rosendale is trying to get attention,” Mullin, who briefly served with Rosendale, told NBC News. “How can they write articles of impeachment when they have nothing to say about impeachment? We don’t even know the details yet. Rosendale just wants attention.”
Rosendale said Tuesday that Austin newly diagnosed prostate cancer will not affect his impeachment plans. “His current medical condition, set aside, does not eliminate the breach of public trust and the threat he poses to the security of the United States,” Rosendale said. he said On Fox News Radio, he added that he wished Austin a speedy recovery “in his personal life.”
Before the Defense Department announced Austin’s diagnosis Tuesday, Senate Minority Whip John Thune, the No. 2 GOP leader of South Dakota, described Austin’s failure to disclose as a “pretty stunning lack of transparency” and why Austin should testify on Capitol Hill . he handled the situation so badly.
But when asked about other Republicans calling for Austin’s resignation or impeachment, Tune said: “Before you go down that road, I want to hear what he has to say. … Congress needs to do its job, provide oversight and ask tough questions, and it needs to be here and answer them and be accountable.”