The Republican-led House on Thursday reversed moves to impeach President Biden immediately but voted along party lines to open an investigation into his firing, as reluctant GOP leaders bowed to their hard-right members who demanded to come forward with accusations that his immigration policies were high crimes and misdemeanors.
By a vote of 219 to 208, the House referred the two articles of impeachment against Biden — one for abuse of power and one for dereliction of duty — to the Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. Speaker Kevin McCarthy engineered the move, which allows the articles of impeachment to advance without formally endorsing him, as a way to relieve pressure from right-wing lawmakers to quickly begin the process of removing Biden from office, despite a lack of evidence. violation.
Representative Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, pushed for the action by moving this week to force a vote on a resolution accusing Mr. Biden of orchestrating an “invasion” of the United States through lax immigration policies, using language often associated with replacement theory, a racist conspiracy theory that argued that the elite were working to replace white Americans with people of color who were invading the nation.
That pushed McCarthy, who has previously said he sees no basis whatsoever to impeach Biden and is privately concerned that Republicans have yet to make a concrete case against the president, into a heated debate that some colleagues have deemed premature and politically risky.
“Well, everyone's talking about it,” McCarthy said of defending the impeachment charges for further study. “We are conducting an investigation wherever that information tells us.”
It was the latest display of Mr. McCarthy on his fragile rank and file, and the extent to which he will appease far-right lawmakers angry that he struck a deal with President Biden to suspend the debt limit and have for demanding more control over the agenda and what bills get to the House floors.
Democrats denounced the move as a farce and a reflection of how the Republican Party caters to its extremes, and a much-needed move to deflect attention from the guilt of former President Donald J. Trump, who was impeached this month over allegations he mishandled national secrets. security information and obstruct and lie to investigators about it.
“When a MAGA wing nut says jump, Speaker McCarthy says how high,” said Representative Jim McGovern, a Democrat of Massachusetts. “They can try to indict Joe Biden all they want, but all they're doing is indicting themselves and making fun of this place.”
Ms Boebert rejoiced at the vote, arguing that Mr Biden had “knowingly” violated federal immigration laws and should be removed.
“For the first time in 24 years, a majority Republican leadership is moving forward with impeachment proceedings against the current president,” Boebert said on Thursday.
Biden has presided over the biggest surge in illegal migration across the southern border in decades. During the 2022 fiscal year, Border Patrol agents arrested migrants who crossed the border illegally more than 2.2 million times. Their influx is part of a global migration trend, with people fleeing extreme poverty, violence and unstable regimes. It also led to large numbers of migrants crossing the border during the Trump administration.
However, in the past month, the number of crossings decreased significantly after the Biden administration introduced new border policies that limited access to asylum and created new legal avenues.
Ms Boebert's decision to push through the articles of her impeachment frustrated many Republicans at the conference, who wanted to discuss border policy but acknowledged that no clear evidence of crime by Mr Biden or any member of his Cabinet would meet the high crime and misdemeanor standards that warrant removal from office. .
“Impeachment is one of the most admirable powers Congress has to exercise,” said Representative Garret Graves, Republic of Louisiana. “It's not something to be used carelessly, let alone in just two days. That's crazy.”
But he said he still chose to refer the articles of impeachment to the committee. “That doesn't mean that I support impeachment,” he said. “Going to committee is a regular ordering process, which I think should be done.”
Representative Stephanie Bice, Oklahoma Republican and a prominent centrist, warned “we cannot make impulsive decisions because we are angry.”
Mr. McCarthy has told members that if an investigation by Representative James E. Comer, the Kentucky Republican and chairman of the Oversight Committee, into the Biden family business finds evidence of crime, impeachment will be forthcoming.
But Ms Boebert's move has Republican leaders looking for a way out to avoid a ratchet-up vote on the articles of impeachment, which would split Republicans and force those from moderate districts to pick up a tougher vote.
In agreement with Ms. Boebert that was discussed on Wednesday, after an emergency Rules Committee meeting, Mr. McCarthy convinced him to accept a face-saving compromise: a vote to refer his articles of impeachment to a committee holding hearings at the border. already planned. Submitting bills to committees is also a tactic that legislators often use to quietly bury legislation they don't want to pursue.
Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, complained about the move which he said had turned the powerful panel into “a political impeachment ground for the president.”
“This cynical resolution has nothing to do with border security,” said Mr. Thompsons. “It has nothing to do with constitutional law.” Instead, he said, it was an attempt by Republicans to deflect attention from wrongdoing by Mr Trump, whom he described as “the twice impeached, twice indicted party leader.”
Some Republicans hinted that the vote was retaliation for the Democrats' treatment of Mr. Trump when they controlled the House. Representative Bob Good, a Republican of Virginia, said that “impeachment can't be political, it can't be cavalier,” implying that Democrats have pursued two impeachments against Mr Trump on partisan grounds.
“We are well aware that the previous president has been impeached twice, and that is justifiable,” said Mr. McGovern in response.
Thursday's action was in some ways a mirror image of what Democrats are facing amid a Trump presidency. For months in 2019, top Democrats tried to hold off on impeachment charges against Trump, working hard to avoid plunging into what then-President Nancy Pelosi said would be a divisive and politically dangerous exercise.
But in July of that year, Representative Al Green, a progressive Democrat from Texas, moved to force a vote to charge Trump with making racist remarks. Instead of cutting the deal to allow Mr Green to save face and list his party to support impeachment considerations, Pelosi allowed the measure to fall short by a vote of 332 to 95.
Months later, after allegations surfaced that Mr Trump was trying to pressure the president of Ukraine to investigate Mr Biden, his political rival, Democrats voted to open an investigation that would have led to his first impeachment.
Impeachment of Mr. Biden appears to be an unpopular prospect, and Mr. McCarthy has long been aware of the threat such a move could pose to his fragile majority. He also warned his conference that the trumped-up impeachment charges would not have a chance to see conviction in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
A National University of Massachusetts Amherst poll released last year showed that 66 percent of voters opposed impeachment, including 44 percent who said they strongly opposed the move.
However, some members of the ultraconservative Home Freedom Caucus are eager to step forward, despite warnings from leaders that the move could backfire.
“There are people here who are tired of, ‘Hey, we're going to get this done next week,' or ‘Just wait and see,'” said Representative Eli Crane, Republic of Arizona. “I'd like to see some of these people here have to pick up a loud voice.”
A White House spokesman, Ian Sams, said that instead of working with the government to create jobs, lower costs, and strengthen health care, “extreme Republicans commit baseless political stunts that do nothing to help people.” real people and only serves to attract their own attention. .”
Eileen Sullivan reporting contribution.