by Byron York at Washington Examiner
GOP IMPEACHMENT DILEMMA: FOLLOW RULES OR PELOSI PRECEDENT? House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced today that Republicans will begin an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s business dealings with son Hunter Biden and other Biden family members. “These are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption and warrant further investigation by the House of Representatives,” McCarthy said. “That’s why today I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.”
The question vexing McCarthy in recent weeks was whether to open an impeachment inquiry only after a vote of the full House authorizing the inquiry or whether to push ahead without full House approval. Last month, McCarthy told Breitbart that “if we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would occur through a vote on the floor of the People’s House and not through a declaration by one person.” But there were always doubts about whether Republicans had enough votes to pass an inquiry authorization. Now, McCarthy has decided to declare an inquiry just on his own authority.
Hanging over the whole process was the precedent set by McCarthy’s immediate predecessor, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). In her obsession to pursue then-President Donald Trump, Pelosi impeached Trump twice and cut corners both times. In the first impeachment, over Ukraine in late 2019, Pelosi simply declared an inquiry to be underway without relying on any vote. She hand-picked Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), chairman of the Intelligence Committee, to run it, passing over Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, which was the normal path for impeachments. Schiff and Pelosi cut minority Republicans out of the process and raced ahead in an effort to impeach Trump by the end of 2019 in hopes that impeachment would greatly diminish Trump’s chances of reelection in 2020.
McCarthy was leading the Republicans at the time…
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