House Republican leaders have made no secret of the fact that they intend to move forward with their impeachment inquiry targeting President Joe Biden. But given the fact that GOP officials haven’t uncovered any incriminating evidence against the Democrat, the question is why in the world they’re doing this.
When then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy got the ball rolling on the inquiry a few months ago, the California congressman came up with a relatively detailed pitch to justify the partisan move, though a Washington Post analysis found that his claims amounted to little more than “exaggerations, irrelevancies, and dishonesty.”
So, if the official explanation is dubious, what’s the real reason?
There are a variety of factors at play, though USA Today published a report overnight that included an important on-the-record quote from a GOP lawmaker.
For what it’s worth, Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, one of [Donald] Trump’s most vocal supporters in the House, has not shied away from pushing for Biden’s impeachment in part to play politics. If Trump, who has been impeached twice, is the 2024 Republican nominee, Nehls said he wants to give Trump “a little bit of ammo to fire back” and say Biden has also been impeached.
The Texan’s candor was welcome. Indeed, Nehls, apparently indifferent to appearances, effectively said the quiet part loud: He’s looking ahead to the 2024 election, and he wants to muddy the waters: Trump was impeached, so he wants Republicans to be able to accurately tell voters that Biden was too.
In this framing, merit is irrelevant. What matters is partisan tactics and strategies in pursuit of power.
But just as important as Nehls casually helping give away the game is the fact that he’s not the only one. Trump himself sat down with Megyn Kelly in September, and when the subject of impeachment came up, the former president said, “They did it to me. And had they not done it to me, I think, and nobody officially said this, but I think had they not done it to me … perhaps you wouldn’t have it being done to them.”
It came on the heels of Trump publishing an item to his social media platform that read, “Either IMPEACH the BUM, or fade into OBLIVION. THEY DID IT TO US!”
Indeed, some in the party started telegraphing the move quite a while ago. In February 2020, while there was still some uncertainty as to whether Biden would even win his party’s nomination, Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa said, “I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened. Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him.’”
It’s against this backdrop that Republicans like Nehls are apparently willing to concede that the anti-Biden gambit is, among other things, about giving the likely GOP nominee “a little bit of ammo.”
As the process moves forward, it would be less exasperating if more Republicans were simply honest about the party’s motivations. GOP officials haven’t uncovered evidence of wrongdoing against Biden, but they have discovered their affinity for revenge.
