Kevin McCarthy says a government shutdown would hurt the American public by shutting down Republican investigations of the Bidens pic.twitter.com/jqMVK6fyip
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 27, 2023
NEWS: McCarthy, under pressure from the right, has told Republicans he’s serious about a Biden impeachment inquiry & wants to start in September.
But they don’t have the votes — or evidence — yet, which is why there’s talk of skipping an inquiry vote. https://t.co/HgT3haksPe
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) August 28, 2023
Just oooone little spending patch, and then y’all get a nice big bowl of impeachment kabuki theatre! Kev can’t even get all the Freedumb Carcass members on board with skipping an inquiry vote, so he’s resorting to promising them all more face time on the teevee.
… In recent weeks, McCarthy has privately told Republicans he plans to pursue an impeachment inquiry into Biden and hopes to start the process by the end of September, according to multiple GOP sources familiar with the conversations. While McCarthy has already publicly threatened to launch an inquiry if allegations from IRS whistleblowers hold up or if the Biden administration does not cooperate with requests related to House Republicans’ Hunter Biden probe, sources say that McCarthy has sent even stronger signals about his intentions behind closed doors.
But leadership recognizes that the entire House Republican conference is not yet sold on the politically risky idea of impeachment. That’s why one of the biggest lingering questions – and something Republicans have been discussing in recent weeks – is whether they would need to hold a floor vote to formally authorize their inquiry, sources say. There is no constitutional requirement that they do so, and Republicans do not currently have the 218 votes needed to open an impeachment inquiry.
Skipping the formal vote, which would be a tough one for many of the party’s more vulnerable and moderate members, would allow Republicans to get the ball rolling on an inquiry while giving leadership more time to convince the rest of the conference to get on board with impeachment. During former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, House Democrats ended up voting to both formalize their inquiry and set parameters for the process after initially holding off on doing so amid divisions within their ranks.
“I don’t believe that a vote of the House is required to open an impeachment inquiry,” GOP Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who supports a Biden impeachment and sits on the House Judiciary Committee, told CNN.
Another factor that could complicate the fall timeline for an impeachment inquiry: Government funding expires at the end of September. McCarthy has already signaled they will need a short-term spending patch to keep the government’s lights on, which hardline conservatives have balked at.
Officially moving ahead with an impeachment inquiry could help keep angry conservatives off McCarthy’s back. And the speaker himself has linked the two issues publicly, warning that a government shutdown could hinder House Republicans’ ability to continue their investigations into the Biden administration – a direct appeal to his right flank, and a sign of all the competing pressures that the speaker is facing.
“If we shut down, all of government shuts down. Investigations and everything else,” McCarthy said Sunday on Fox News…
GOP Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, a member of the hardline Freedom Caucus who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, has previously accused McCarthy of engaging in “impeachment theater.”
And one GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak more freely, offered an even blunter assessment: “There’s no evidence that Joe Biden got money, or that Joe Biden, you know, agreed to do something so that Hunter could get money. There’s just no evidence of that. And they can’t impeach without that evidence. And I don’t I don’t think the evidence exists.” …
Can’t wait for it. He’s gonna learn what Gingrich learned after ‘98 https://t.co/v0WSvS47LF
— Dark Brandon Mecha VI (@TonyMoonbeam) August 28, 2023
Villago Delenda Est
It’s all utter performative horseshit. Every last bit of it. Which is why Qevin is doomed to be seen as one of the weakest Squeakers ever.
Matt McIrvin
Can’t impeach without evidence? They can impeach him for being a Democrat! Blah blah something “the border”. I’m not sure this guy knows how his party works now.
Mart
The media really needs to pull their heads out of their asses or this country’s Democracy is over.
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
Christ, what a Desantis!
MazeDancer
if you’ll vote for spending, I’ll give you impeachment inquiry? Such a deal!
Every time they try to “investigate” something, the GOP runs into the difficulty, for them, that they have to put Dems on the committee, too. And the Dems are always smart. And shred the GOP effort.
Stuart Frasier
@Mart: I’m coming around to the idea that it is the news media that won’t survive. Nobody watches cable news and newspapers have died off. The owners have decided they’ll go down with the ship.
Jay
MTG is going to post Hunter Penis Pic’s again, right?
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
It’s all utter performative horseshit.
What else do they have?
Any substance? No
Any rational anything? No
Any concept of what the fuck they might accomplish? No
Any concept of what this might do to them? No
It’s all utter performative BULLSHIT.
They have no rudder, no captain, nothing, but the ship is taking on water and they don’t even know that.
They aren’t a legitimate political party since SFB screwed this nation.
It’s like the unrecognized club in 4th grade, that thinks they know everything, while they continue to prove the exact opposite.
Ruckus
@J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian):
Christ, what a Desantis!
Now that’s going to leave a mark.
Ruckus
@Jay:
MTG is going to post Hunter Penis Pic’s again, right?
Don’t they see enough dicks in the mirror?
Tony Jay
@MazeDancer:
Then they should just dispense with ‘the rules’ and take it fully into the realms of partisan performative posturing. Declare that ‘Democrat sabotage of vital National Security concerns’ is preventing the People’s Representatives from carrying out their duty to investigate Biden’s crimes, have Qevin invoke his super-secret Squeaker’s powers to form an Emergency Taskforce for House Investigations into Criminality And Lawbreaking consisting solely of MAGOP mouthbreathers and make the ‘scandal’ be all about the White House and the Democrats stonewalling the collection of evidence necessary for an impeachment vote.
The News Media would be delighted at the spectacle, the Base would yank itself plastic at proof that Republicans are ‘playing to win’, and the Sinister Six could rub their chins and allow it to be understood that if the matter ever came before their Court they would not look kindly upon an Administration that refused to let itself be investigated as the Good Lord intended.
It wouldn’t get anywhere, but it wouldn’t be intended to. Red meat and razzle dazzle, that’s all the modern Republican Party is hungry for.
Nukular Biskits
Every sane Murkan “represented” by a House Republican should be contacting that congresscritter and demanding to know if they support this bribery.
p.a.
These bastards. No creativity, can’t do anything original. Wasn’t performance theater invented by the New Left? Get your own act, conservaturds.
Betty Cracker
@Nukular Biskits: My shitty House rep (Gus Bilirakis, as of a recent redistricting that swapped out one wingnut loon for another) is ducking the question, according to The Miami Herald. But he makes a big show of kissing Trump’s ass, so my guess is he’ll be on board with a performative show trial. The whole thing is mind-bogglingly dumb, but there’s a decent chance it could blow up in Repubs’ faces and help Biden, who really could use the help if polls are accurate.
satby
@Stuart Frasier: Elizabelle (thanks!!) sent me this link to an opinion piece by Will Bunch that calls out the media failure to report honestly on the facist circus. Hoping the positive responses by a lot of journalists on Twitter and Blue Sky start have some influence in more truthtelling before it’s too late.
LiminalOwl
@Ruckus: MTG doesn’t see any in the mirror. (I’m assuming that here, at least, we won’t have any of the “maybe she’s trans” nonsense.) And, as she ages out of “prime” territory, she might not see any flesh-and-blood ones either.
satby
@Betty Cracker: Polls indicate how the questions were framed as much or more than they indicate a snapshot in time of what people think. If someone asked me if Biden was too old to run, just that question in isolation, I’d probably say yes. But it would be out of the context of what the other choice was, how healthy he is, how great he’s been as a president: all factors in why I’m still going to vote for him. But the pollster would get the result that single question was designed to get, and spin it accordingly.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@p.a.:
I thought it was invented by Andy Kaufman
Betty Cracker
@satby: I agree the way questions are framed matters a lot, but there have been a ton of polls on this issue, including some that dig into what Dems and Biden voters specifically think, and the results are not great. (This AP/NORC poll for example.)
I hear the same concerns from Dems I know IRL — this is a real issue, IMO. I don’t think there’s a lot we can or should do about it, but we can’t wish it away.
Nukular Biskits
@Betty Cracker:
With few exceptions, the media here in South MS is giving Mike Ezell a total pass.
I’d ask him myself at a townhall meeting, but Ezell, like most other Republicans, refuses to hold any public meetings that would entail the danger of being asked unscripted embarrassing questions about policy or positions.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
We can talk about what a great job Biden is doing, and I suppose share clips where he’s being active or looking strong. Most people aren’t watching him directly and are getting their info from media and haters on social media. The only solution in the end is Biden getting out there campaigning so people will see him directly.
lowtechcyclist
I’m guessing these poll questions about Biden’s age never mention that the difference in age between Biden and Trump is just three and a half years, let alone add in the obvious fact that Biden’s in way better shape for his age than Trump is.
Anything to bothsides the survival of American democracy.
p.a.
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Or Mao’s wife.
Princess
McConnell’s decision not to impeach Trump for Jan. 6 was such a costly unforced error, for the country, obviously, but even more maybe for his own party. He left it fully in thrall to Trumpdom.
satby
First, it’s nice they updated to cell phones instead of only using landlines, but how many people answer unknown calls on either? And online polls are known to be flawed, but they had to work with what they had. Polling is to further the horserace, not to inform. Because if people were well informed (back to Will Bunch’s point) , the contrast of Biden’s health and mental acuity with Trumps would be glaring.
Edited to add link to poll. Baud’s quote should be separate but FYWP.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I think the campaign is doing a pretty good job of that, judging from the ads I’ve seen while watching sports or monitoring the weather (admittedly a limited sample). I’ve seen spots that highlight Biden’s economic successes and how they help regular people in ads that also counterprogram for the media’s focus on Biden’s verbal and literal stumbles.
I also see Harris featuring more prominently in the story, which seems like a smart move to me. Repubs believe Harris is a huge liability for obvious reasons, but the admin is positioning her as an asset who’s deeply involved in getting the country back on track — a competent understudy. I’m the opposite of an expert in this type of thing, but I think that’s the right approach.
Betty
@Betty Cracker: I am starting to emphasize with those folks that he has the right people in place to do the right things, the people who actually get stuff done.
P Thomas
It takes 9 paragraphs for this idiot writer to get to the most important point:
They have no evidence at all.
Our media is failing us again.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I like that they’re leaning into Harris. I wish I were representative of the general population. I don’t even try to guess how they view things anymore.
Betty Cracker
@satby: It blows my mind that more than 27% of people support Trump. I’ll never understand it, but here we are. I agree polls further the horserace bullshit more than they inform for those of us in the peanut gallery. But they’re also the closest thing to hard data campaigns have, and if they can let a campaign know an issue is on voters’ minds so the campaign can address it, that’s useful.
Manyakitty
@Baud: Harris/Baud 2028?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Matt McIrvin: That was my thought too. That guy thinks his party needs evidence to impeach the president? Ha! Hold their beers.
satby
@satby: And since we’re flogging that poll, the results once you go past the headline aren’t bad at all:
Approve of his job as president (all Democrats): 76%
Approve (Democrats 18-44): 68%
The poll, as you read all the questions, was devised to focus on age. But when you look at even his approval on handling the economy, his supposed Achilles heel, Democrats 18-44 still approve of Biden by 52%.
As always, our battles will be against the media to inform low info voters and tell the fucking truth, same as every election.
satby
@Betty Cracker: I know you know the Crazification Factor, but just sharing John Roger’s brilliant Kung-Fu Monkey again. Because it’s forever relevant.
Manyakitty
Meanwhile, it sure looks like Morning Joe is trying to make Chris Christie happen. Maybe he’s auditioning for a spot after he drops out of the race.
RedDirtGirl
And what’s with the quiet voice McQarthy is using in that clip? Creepy!
lowtechcyclist
@Manyakitty:
There’s no way to make Chris Christie ‘happen’ in the GOP primaries, and Morning Joe has to know that. But by airing a semi-sane Rethug, he (like all his media colleagues) is trying to convey the (false) pretense that the GOP hasn’t done a cliff-dive into total madness and that we still have two normal political parties. (IOW, what Will Bunch said.)
Princess
The thing is, among normies in either party, impeachment in general. is not that popular. It comes across as a waste of time, especially without chance of conviction. Pelosi knew this — she impeached Trump because it was just and right not because it would be popular. She said so. And she had evidence that would persuade her own side. Kevin doesn’t even have that. This is a loser.
RedDirtGirl
@Tony Jay: I love it when I guess the correct commenter before having seen the name. Happens a lot with you since your turn of phrase is so distinctive!
Tony Jay
@RedDirtGirl:
That’s a very sweet way of saying “You’re so predictable”. 8-)
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: CNN makes these little “newsbreak” audio squibs that you can listen to from a podcast app. I happened to listen to one last weekend, when I had some time to kill sitting in my car, and the lead story was about a possible auto industry strike and the Biden administration’s unusually pro-labor efforts to mediate. But they had to frame it as a grim horserace story: “obviously, a strike wouldn’t be good for Biden,” so the administration was trying to do something about it. Biden couldn’t just be doing his job. I was struck by the lean of the spin.
I don’t know if they’ve gotten worse or if I’ve just gotten more discerning. I know a lot of stuff from the 1970s and 80s that struck me as neutral then would probably cheese me off now.
Tony G
@Mart: Most of the mainstream media — including “liberal” outlets like CNN — are active supporters of the fascists. They are owned by billionaires who are just fine with fascism. NPR is not much better either.
gene108
When was the last time a Republican controlled House passed a budget, without all this drama?
To me, it seems relevant because starting the budget process is the one job the House has. If the House decides to go on recess for an entire year, they still have to pass a budget. It’s the one inescapable aspect of being in the House.
We’ve basically normalized the Republican Party’s inability to govern as just another regular facet of American life no one questions, like driving on the right side of the road.
We really have lowered the bar on what to expect from Republican politicians.
Geminid
@Manyakitty: I listened to a rerun of a Hew Hewitt’s radio show from the day after the debate, and he is still trying to make DeSantis happen.
Geminid
@Geminid:
Hewitt to Guest: “DeSantis’s job was to run off-tackle and gain a few yards, and I thought he did that 3 or 4 times. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Guest: “Well, I’m not so sure….”
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
I wonder that about myself too.
@Geminid:
The GOP base wants unsportsmanlike conduct against the opposing team.
RevRick
@Betty Cracker: Fascism has a deep appeal to the dark side of humanity. It taps into our fears, into what disgusts us, into our concerns about contamination. And it does so by making all of our dark side seem righteous. It transforms the dark side, making all those who are moved by it into “good” people. It makes my shittiness noble.
One of the ways it does so is through spectacle: the mass rallies that make its participants feel like they are part of something big and important and wonderful. We dismiss this at our peril.
gene108
I don’t think impeaching Biden will be a problem for Republicans. Unlike President Obama, who Republicans also discussed impeaching in 2014, there’s no group of voters that are emotionally invested In President Biden. Impeaching President Obama would’ve got African Americans out in numbers to vote against Republicans, hurting Republican chances of retaking the Senate.
Like President Clinton’s impeachment, the polling might be bad, but the actual impact would be minimal. Republicans retook the Senate in 1999, and didn’t lose their House majority until 2006.
Republicans may lose the House, in 2024, but in this century it’s taken them two election cycles to win back control.
The blowback from impeachment is overestimated, in my opinion.
Baud
@gene108:
The Republicans had a huge House majority in 1998. They could afford to lose a lot and they did.
I agree that impeachment is only relevant for 2024.
Manyakitty
@lowtechcyclist: totally
SFAW
@Tony Jay:
I knew you were going to say that.
Manyakitty
@Geminid: that is HILARIOUS. What a douchebag.
smith
Republicans see impeachment as a game of tit-for-tat, not a way to ensure good behavior from presidents. Just as it was inevitable that they would find something to impeach a Dem president for in revenge for Nixon’s impeachment, it was a 100% sure bet that they would try to find something to impeach Biden for, to balance TFG’s impeachments. In fact, they will try it twice if they get the chance. I was surprised they didn’t start it the week they gained control of the House.
Geminid
@gene108: Republicans in purple districts, especially the ones Biden carried, have good reason to want to avoid impeachment proceedings. I think only the more partisan of Republican voters want impeachment, and they’re only enough to win 190-195 seats. Republicans had to reach beyond their base to win the next 26-31, and they have to do this again to keep their 5 seat majority. The way this caucus is going, I don’t think they can.
rikyrah
@Matt McIrvin:
Impeached for being President while a Democrat
rikyrah
@Geminid:
If the purple ones vote for this BULLSHYT, then , yes, that vote needs to be hung around their necks
rikyrah
@Geminid:
The MSM, both regular and right-wing, invested nearly the last year and a half pumping up RonnieD. They are invested. Not going to let all that investment go to waste
zhena gogolia
@satby:
Yes, exactly. I can’t believe I’m having to do this again, replacing “e-mails” with “old.”
zhena gogolia
@gene108: I think Black people are also emotionally invested in Joe Biden.
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: I’m convinced that the polling this early – as always – is useless. It’s just name recognition. Real voters aren’t paying attention to any of this stuff. They’re worried about getting their kids ready for school.
And that’s before we get into the (already mentioned) problems of getting a valid universe of respondents in the age of caller-ID and cell phones.
“In this Ohio diner off US-68 on this Tuesday morning, retired voters say they are very worried about high unemployment, UFOs, and vaccine shedding, and look forward to a Trump 3rd term…”
[ sigh ]
Cheers,
Scott.
Denali5
TIFG certainly knows how to use the public’s love for spectacle. The motorcade to the jail almost overshadowed the fact that TFG was forced to show up for criminal proceedings, including a mugshot. The link to fascism is unmistakable.
Tim Curtin
Okay, RINO.
Brachiator
This is just about the dumbest thing I’ve heard from the Republicans since, well, since the last time they said something incredibly stupid.
The Republicans are the party of permanent paralysis. And McCarthy really expects the public at large to sit back and accept this nonsense. Incredible.
Uncle Cosmo
@satby: I spent most of my employment career as an applied statistician, and I did some (very primitive) pro-bono political polling in my 20s that actually affected the results of a significant election.
IMO the only polling that has any validity these days is maybe half of the internal polls commissioned by a campaign organization. And no one outside such an organization will ever see them until long after their “accurate until” date.
I say “half” at best because at least half of those internal polls are either of the Dr Doolittle persuasion (“pushyou-pollyou”) – not intended to collect valid data but to inject a campaign meme, usually denigrating the opponent, into the electorate – or are testing the response to various campaign gambits in order to pick the one(s) with the most bang for the buck.
As for polls external to the campaigns, they’re worse than worthless – they are constructed with misleading questions designed either to support a partisan narrative (almost always Rethuglican) or to generate OMG AIN’T IT AWFUL headlines as clickbait.
I would not be unhappy if someone lined up every one of those fraudulent “pollsters” and had them pistol-whipped within an inch of their lives – they discredit what was once a reputable profession and a highly ethical and useful process in the name of lying for a paycheck.
Villago Delenda Est
For suiting up and showing up for the game.
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
And the Senate was a wash: Dems lost a two seats, but picked up two: knocking off noted Clinton haters Lloyd Faircloth in North Carolina and Al D’Mato in New York. D’Mato lost to some guy named Schumer. Wonder what happened to him?
Finally, the Dems also did well in Governors races and held serve in state legislatures. It was an incredible performance for the sixth year of a presidential administration.