Instead of conducting an immediate vote on impeaching the president, House Republicans are now planning to forward an impeachment resolution against Vice President Joe Biden to two committees in an effort to de-escalate the tensions that have arisen within their party.
On Thursday, the House will vote on whether or not to forward a resolution that was presented by Representative Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, to the committees on Homeland Security and the Judiciary. The Republicans will be able to escape, at least for the time being, a messy struggle that was already dividing the party if they decide against holding the vote on impeachment.
In a closed-door meeting earlier in the day, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., urged rank-and-file Republicans to oppose Boebert’s resolution, arguing that such an important issue should go through the committee process. Three GOP sources who heard the comments confirmed that the House Rules Committee advanced the plan in a meeting late Wednesday night after huddling with McCarthy.
Instead of having to cast a vote to table, or kill, the resolution, Republican lawmakers who didn’t think it was appropriate to impeach President Joe Biden will now be able to vote to send Boebert’s resolution to committees for further work. Doing so would have made some Republican lawmakers politically vulnerable in the 2024 primaries.
McCarthy responded to the question of why he wanted to move forward with the resolution in this manner by telling the reporters, “I think it’s best for everybody.”
As Boebert was leaving the chamber, she addressed the press and said, “A sophomore in Congress just forced the House of Representatives to do their job.”
“I have no problem with the procedure that is taking place…The legislator was serving his second term when he made his statement. “If we send this to that committee, then yes, we are forcing the committee to do the work of impeaching Joe Biden,” the lawmaker added.
When asked about McCarthy’s remark behind closed doors that it could be premature to bring an impeachment resolution straight to the floor, Boebert responded, “I think there’s nothing premature about it. There’s nothing wrong with moving forward with it.” Since the beginning of this Congress, when we got control of the gavels, we should have been working on impeachment, but I didn’t see any progress in the committees on that front. Therefore, in order to compel action, I presented my privileged resolution to the floor of the assembly. And it would appear that nothing takes place in Washington, D.C. without the use of some sort of coercion.
Through the presentation of a privileged resolution, Boebert was in a position to compel an impeachment vote on the floor of the House. On Thursday, as is required, the House of Representatives will still take action on the resolution, but they will vote on whether or not to submit it to legislative committees.
