The House will vote next week on formalizing its Biden impeachment inquiry, Speaker Johnson says

Table Of Content

• House will vote to formalize Biden impeachment inquiry next week, Johnson says
• News Wrap: House to vote on formally authorizing Biden impeachment inquiry
• An objection meant Republicans couldn't force tough votes
• 'Surprising' and 'disturbing': Legal experts react to SCOTUS on Trump immunity case
• Senate voting now to adjourn the trial
• News

"Whether someone is for or against impeachment is not of import right now. We have to continue our legal responsibility and that is only solely what this vote is about." Johnson said Tuesday he believed Republicans would get the votes they need, saying the moderates in the GOP conference "understand this is not a political decision." House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a member of the Oversight Committee, both said the goal of a vote to authorize the GOP's impeachment inquiry would be to bolster subpoenas from the Judiciary and Oversight committees in a potential court fight. Then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., announced in September that Republicans would open an impeachment inquiry into the president, directing three committees to seek bank records and other documents from the president and his son Hunter Biden. But Republicans have grown frustrated by the White House’s argument that they don’t need to comply with some subpoenas because the House did not take a formal vote authorizing the inquiry into the Biden family’s business dealings.

House will vote to formalize Biden impeachment inquiry next week, Johnson says

Presidential inaugurations traditionally draw huge crowds to Washington for parades, performances and evening balls and parties. But coronavirus precautions have made that impossible this year, along with heightened security following last week’s riot at the Capitol. Mr. Crow, whose request letter was signed by 107 of his colleagues, said Wednesday that he has been informed the investigation is underway. Three officers have been suspended, and 17 others are under investigation by the force’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

News Wrap: House to vote on formally authorizing Biden impeachment inquiry

Capitol building in a rampage that led to five deaths, including that of a Capitol Police officer. If all members are present and Democrats vote no, they can only afford three defections in their ranks to approve the impeachment inquiry. Gathered in the Capitol just one week after it came under violent attack by a pro-Trump mob, the House engaged in an emotional debate on Wednesday over whether to impeach President Trump for his role in inciting the violence. Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the Democratic whip, told CNN this week that although he took shelter in his unmarked office in the Capitol during the attack, the mob was able to find where he was. But if the Senate were to convict him, the Constitution allows a subsequent vote to bar an official from holding “any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.” That vote would require only a simple majority of senators.

An objection meant Republicans couldn't force tough votes

WASHINGTON — House Republicans are eyeing a vote Wednesday to formalize the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. But in the run-up to the vote, the two parties traded bitter jabs and dueling arguments for and against using the Constitution’s gravest remedy just days before Mr. Trump was to leave office. Democrats uniformly described the president’s conduct in scathing terms, arguing that impeachment was an appropriate remedy.

House Republicans barely impeached Mayorkas

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, tore into his Republican colleagues, saying they have no evidence of wrongdoing by Biden and are trying to impeach him because they have no policy agenda. Hunter Biden is currently facing criminal charges in two states from the special counsel investigation. He’s charged with firearm counts in Delaware, alleging he broke laws against drug users having guns in 2018, a period when he has acknowledged struggling with addiction. Special counsel David Weiss filed additional charges last week, alleging he failed to pay about $1.4 million in taxes over a three-year period. It is a sideshow,” Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said during a floor debate.

GOP lawmakers said that since Hunter Biden did not appear, they will begin contempt of Congress proceedings against him. “He just got into more trouble today,” Rep. James Comer, the House Oversight Committee chairman, told reporters Wednesday. While Republicans say their inquiry is ultimately focused on the president himself, they have taken particular interest in Hunter Biden and his overseas business dealings, from which they accuse the president of personally benefiting. Republicans have also focused a large part of their investigation on whistleblower allegations of interference in the long-running Justice Department investigation into the younger Biden’s taxes and his gun use.

“We’ve come to this sort of inflection point because the White House is stonewalling that investigation. They’re refusing to turn over key witnesses to allow them to testify as they’ve been subpoenaed. They’re refusing to turn over thousands of documents from the National Archives,” Johnson said at a news conference Tuesday.

Senate voting now to adjourn the trial

Or, they said, Johnson could simply resign, pointing to the example of a previous speaker, Republican John Boehner of Ohio, who stepped aside in 2015 when hard-liners threatened to oust him. After the Ukraine aid passed, Greene had hoped that a public backlash by conservative constituents against Johnson would lead to a groundswell of Republicans turning on him. Though Trump has been tepid in his praise of Johnson, he’s sympathized with the speaker for leading such a slim majority. The impeachment case has fizzled, and Democrats saw in Johnson’s move on Ukraine—despite months of delay—an act of much greater political courage than McCarthy’s last-minute decision to avert a government shutdown. Mr. Newhouse is campaigning for re-election as if the impeachment vote never happened, betting that voters will reward him for his attention to the wildfires that have ravaged the Pacific Northwest this summer and for securing federal funding for police departments. The 10 G.O.P. lawmakers who voted to impeach Donald Trump face angry primary voters and challengers inspired or endorsed by the former president.

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“But I think there’s no question but that this is not going to result in a conviction, because the test of a high crime or misdemeanor being committed has not been alleged, and as a result of that, there will not be a conviction,” he said. Ms. Pelosi named Representative Jamie Raskin, a constitutional lawyer from Maryland who drafted the impeachment article, as the lead manager of Mr. Trump’s trial. Mr. Raskin, who lost his 25-year-old son to suicide on New Year’s Eve and then survived the mob attack, is a professor of constitutional law at American University’s Washington College of Law. In the week leading up to the Capitol siege, Ms. Boebert, a fiery gun-rights activist, released an ad declaring that she would carry her Glock with her on the streets of Washington, including on her way to work. On her way to the House chamber for the impeachment vote on Wednesday, Ms. Boebert caused a spectacle by pushing her way through metal detectors, which were installed as part of heightened security measures after the attack, and ignoring police officers who asked her to stop.

The House impeached Mayorkas in February, with all but three Republicans voting in favor. That made him just the second Cabinet member in U.S. history to be impeached and the first since 1876. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he still feels the same as he did earlier today and expects the trial to wrap by midafternoon, otherwise there would be too many points of order. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he think this will be the end of the impeachment in the Senate, asking why there would be an incentive to go through with any future trials if Democrats dismiss this one. Mayorkas is the second Cabinet member to be impeached, but the first to still be in office. When the House impeached William Belknap in 1876, he had resigned as war secretary just hours earlier.

GOP considers holding formal vote to authorize Biden impeachment - The Associated Press

GOP considers holding formal vote to authorize Biden impeachment.

Posted: Wed, 29 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Johnson on Tuesday dismissed concerns that he wouldn’t be able to rally his vulnerable members to support moving forward with the inquiry. For some moderate Republicans, especially those representing districts that Biden won in the 2020 election, it’s a vote that could come with considerable political risk. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., told NBC News that he believes he is the only GOP no vote for authorizing the impeachment inquiry; he hasn’t heard from any colleagues who plan to join him.

After authorizing their inquiry, Republicans could slow-walk a Biden impeachment vote - NBC News

After authorizing their inquiry, Republicans could slow-walk a Biden impeachment vote.

Posted: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

The Senate voted that Schumer's point of order to rule the second impeachment article is unconstitutional was well taken. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., joked with reporters that the impeachment trial was "awesome," calling it "the apex of civil life right now. … It was a miracle." The White House praised Democrats for dismissing the impeachment."Once and for all, the Senate has rightly voted down this baseless impeachment that even conservative legal scholars said was unconstitutional," spokesperson Ian Sams said. Johnson has been unable to command his razor-thin majority to work together on party priorities and has been forced him into the arms of Democrats for the votes needed to approve most big bills — and now, to keep his job. Greene and Massie said they were giving their colleagues the weekend to weigh their options before calling for the vote on her motion to vacate next week.