House GOP Leader Won’t Commit to Biden Impeachment

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R) speaks during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on June 23, 2021. Win McNamee/Getty Images

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has remained noncommittal when asked about whether Republicans would try to impeach President Joe Biden if they recapture the House in 2022.

If Republicans take over after the midterm elections, McCarthy would be poised to become House speaker. When he was asked about impeaching Biden, he said he doesn’t want to exploit the impeachment process.

“Look, one thing we learned that the Democrats did is they used impeachment for political reasons,” he told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on April 10.

Former President Donald Trump was impeached twice in Democrat-led efforts. However, those impeachments ultimately failed in the Senate.

“We believe in the rule of law,” McCarthy said. “We’re not going to pick and choose just because somebody has power. We’re going to uphold the law. At any time, if someone breaks the law and the ramification becomes impeachment, we would move toward that, but we’re not going to use it for political purposes.”

He said Republicans should focus on other matters, including border security, inflation, and energy.

“Our focus is going to be securing our border, making us energy independent, bringing these prices down, making our schools and streets safe again, and holding this administration accountable,” the California Republican said. “And we will take the facts to wherever the facts go because America’s been through too much with people playing politics with the concept of impeachment. But if it rises to that level, we would have the law determine that.”

Historically, the party of the president loses seats during the forthcoming midterm elections. Democrats currently hold a small majority in the House and a razor-thin advantage in the 50–50 Senate.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) struck an optimistic tone during an interview on April 10, saying that Democrats are facing a “pretty good beating” in November.

President Joe Biden’s “policies have not worked, beginning with the precipitous and ill-advised withdrawal from Afghanistan, which became kind of a metaphor for the incompetence that’s been on full display during this administration,” the Kentucky senator told Fox News. “None of the policies they have pursued have worked out well.”

“Obviously, we’ll have to work with the administration to see what we can agree on,” said McConnell, who likely would be voted Senate majority leader if Republicans capture the upper chamber. “Biden ran as a moderate ... if I’m the majority leader in the Senate and Kevin McCarthy is the speaker in the House, we’ll make sure Joe Biden is a moderate.”