Kevin, Kevin, Kevin…
This is what happens when you bow to the most extreme parts of your base. This is what happens when you cede your already tenuous grip on power to the Gaetzes, the Greenes, and the Trumps. This is what happens when you start a baseless, evidence-free impeachment inquiry, and humiliate yourself over and over on live television by repeating debunked false accusations, at the behest of Donald Trump. This will backfire on Republicans and the Biden-18, and you’re throwing them under the bus by focusing on impeachment rather than the issues that actually matter to their constituents.
You reap what you sow.
New York Times (Opinion): Kevin McCarthy, Humiliated Once Again. “McCarthy right now is the main character in that story. And what a pathetic character he is. Bear in mind that by all appearances, his principal motivation in opening this particular inquiry during this particular week — by unilateral decree, without a vote by the full House — wasn’t the emergence of some new revelation about Hunter Biden’s business dealings and his father’s relationship to them. It wasn’t that the accumulated evidence had finally crossed some threshold or reached some tipping point. It was that a group of rabidly right-wing Republicans high on their own power were coming for him. The impeachment inquiry is chum for approaching sharks, meant to distract and divert them, at least partly. It’s a desperate attempt by an unscrupulous man to keep their teeth from sinking too deep into his torso.” [New York Times, 9/14/23]
Washington Post: McCarthy, Struggling To Govern, Throws Impeachment Chum Into The Water. “House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is quite comfortable talking about the impeachment inquiry that he launched this week. Just don’t ask him about trying to accomplish the basic tasks of governance. On Wednesday, after a simple question about his process for the impeachment inquiry, McCarthy (R-Calif.) went on for three minutes and 49 seconds about every possible aspect of the financial dealings of President Biden’s son and brother. Most of his comments came in the form of questions that were aimed at prodding the media to do more digging. But they also demonstrated that Republicans don’t yet have the answers themselves.” [Washington Post, 9/13/23]
Politifact: Kevin McCarthy’s Full Flop On Opening Joe Biden Impeachment Inquiry With A House Vote. “House Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed his chamber to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden related to his family’s foreign business dealings. McCarthy did not ask the House to vote on whether to proceed with the inquiry. His Sept. 12 directive came just days after he had pledged to hold a vote to launch an inquiry, and it’s at odds with his 2019 comments, when he repeatedly criticized then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for initially launching an impeachment inquiry into then-President Donald Trump without a vote.” [Politifact, 9/13/23]
Washington Post: McCarthy’s Shaky Launch Of The Biden Impeachment Inquiry. “Instead, McCarthy has cast a spotlight on the unease within his conference. On top of the lack of evidence of any real wrongdoing by Biden — the very reason many Republicans are uneasy — it’s a clearly inauspicious start to a deeply consequential event.” [Washington Post, 9/12/23]
Associated Press: Angry And Frustrated, McCarthy Challenges Right-Flank Colleagues To Try To Oust Him From His Post. “Angry, frustrated and unable to lead a fractured and unruly Republican majority, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday told the colleagues threatening to oust him: Do it. The embattled Republican leader essentially dared his hard-right flank to quit holding the risk of a vote to remove him from the job […] Even his decision to launch an impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden did little this week to appease the demands of the Freedom Caucus and others as they threaten to shut down the government in pursuit of deep spending cuts or move to a motion to oust him from office.” [Associated Press, 9/14/23]