OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Former Speaker of the House and California Rep. Nancy Pelosi had a meltdown after an MSNBC reporter pressed her about setting the precedent to have President Joe Biden impeached with the way she handled the impeachment inquiry into former President Donald Trump.
It came after House Speaker and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy said that the former Speaker “changed the precedents for the House,” which is why he decided against putting the matter to a vote after promising that he would.
“And Speaker Pelosi, Speaker McCarthy made the argument the other day that ‘Well, Nancy Pelosi set this precedent. She waited a long time to have a vote on the first impeachment of Donald Trump.’ You did hold a vote, we should add, but he said you made the rules, and he’s just following them now by not holding this initial vote for an impeachment inquiry. What do you say to that?”
The former Speaker was furious with the insinuation and hit back.
“I say that that’s hogwash. I mean, it’s ridiculous. And I don’t know why the press keeps repeating it. The fact is, we said we were going to — I assigned committee chairs, six of them to develop the — the facts, because you have to act upon the facts. That’s a strange thing to say, maybe around here, but you have to act upon the facts,” she said.
“They’ve had eight months of investigation come up with nothing and now they’re trying to say, ‘Well, we’re not going to have a vote because Nancy didn’t have a vote the first day.’ No, we had a vote, we were in preparation for a vote. But again, this is a big deal, an impeachment. You have to do it with care, and not on impulse. And until we had the case, ready that’s when we went forward,” the former Speaker said.
“Now, they again had been investigating for months, coming up with nothing and now they’re going to say on the basis of nothing we’re not going to have a vote on how we go forward. Don’t blame it on me, take responsibility for what you were doing there, and don’t misrepresent the care that we took, the respect that we had for the institution to go forward in a way that really addresses the high crimes and misdemeanors of Donald Trump,” she said.
Speaker McCarthy faced intense pressure to start the impeachment inquiry which may have changed his mind as he initially said the House would vote on it.
As reported by Fox News, citing a statement issued to Breitbart News McCarthy told reporters,
“To open an impeachment inquiry is a serious matter, and House Republicans would not take it lightly or use it for political purposes. The American people deserve to be heard on this matter through their elected representatives. That’s why, 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.”
McCarthy reportedly told Republican members of the House in a closed conference call Monday that the inquiry is “the natural progression from our investigations that have been going on,” according to Fox citing a GOP source on condition of anonymity. They added that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told lawmakers earlier in August that the House would be voting to open the inquiry in September.
The preponderance of evidence gathered by both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee under Rep. James Comer (R-KY) lends to the progression that Jordan reportedly described.
As noted by independent journalist Kanekoa The Great on X, formerly Twitter, Jordan told Fox in a joint interview with Comer on Tuesday, “The White House is getting ready because they know what’s likely to happen later this month… If we need to go to the Impeachment Inquiry phase of our oversight work, we will do that… Mr. Comer subpoenaed documents and individuals from DHS and the Secret Service today. Chairman Smith has subpoenaed individuals from the IRS who were part of the investigation into Hunter Biden. We have subpoenaed individuals from the IRS and FBI who were part of the investigation of Hunter Biden. We want them in for depositions.”
Rep. Comer told Sean Hannity, “The evidence is overwhelming. The White House announced today they’re creating a war room as opposed to cooperating with our investigation… We’ve caught Joe Biden in countless lies about his knowledge and involvement in his family’s shady business deals… Even members of the moderate wing of our party are realizing this could potentially be the biggest political scandal in my lifetime. We have a President who has evidence that his family has taken over $20 million from foreign nationals. We have sworn testimony and emails that show that the President was doing favors in exchange for this money his family is receiving.”
