Key events
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right congresswoman who dined with Donald Trump two days before Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, told reporters on Tuesday she wanted to see “a very deep dive” “no matter how long it takes”.
Greene, who has been pushing for the inquiry since the GOP took control of the House in January, said the inquiry “may take months and months”. Speaking after McCarthy’s announcement, she said:
It may go all the way to the November election. But what we need to do is we need to investigate Joe Biden. But we also need to investigate the web of people that exist in our federal agencies, the FBI, the DOJ, the CIA, and many others, serving not only in this administration, the former administration and the one before it, maybe even further, we need to find the people that have covered up Joe Biden’s crimes and all of the Biden family’s corruption.
A New York Times report published this morning says Greene dined with Trump on Sunday night at his Bedminister club, where she told the paper she laid out her plan for a “long and excruciatingly painful” impeachment inquiry into Biden.
Trump dined with Marjorie Taylor Greene to plot ‘excruciatingly painful’ Biden impeachment – report
Donald Trump has privately and publicly pushed for an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, including weekly telephone calls with the chair of the House GOP conference, Elise Stefanik, and dinner with the far-right congresswoman from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, according to a New York Times report published today.
Greene, a conspiracy theorist and Trump ally, confirmed to the paper that she dined with the former president on Sunday night, and that the pair discussed the push by House Republicans to impeach Trump’s likely opponent in the 2024 presidential election.
Greene, who has introduced articles of impeachment against Biden, said she laid out her impeachment strategy at the dinner, telling Trump she wanted the inquiry to be “long and excruciatingly painful for Joe Biden”.
The dinner took place just two nights before the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, under intense pressure from his right flank, announced his decision to order a formal impeachment inquiry into the president. Trump has spoken regularly with members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and other congressional Republicans who pushed for impeachment, according to the report.
Just earlier this month, House speaker Kevin McCarthy said he would not move forward with an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden without a floor vote.
In an interview with Breitbart published on 1 September, McCarthy made clear that the move would come not as an announcement from him or anyone else, but from a formal vote on the floor of the House. He said:
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.
In 2019, McCarthy posted a tweet warning his predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, that she could not call on an impeachment probe against Donald Trump without a House vote. “Speaker Pelosi can’t decide on impeachment unilaterally. It requires a full vote of the House of Representatives,” McCarthy wrote.
Here are the facts:
1. Speaker Pelosi can’t decide on impeachment unilaterally. It requires a full vote of the House of Representatives.
2. The House has voted three times on articles of impeachment. Each vote failed.
3. For Dems, this is all about politics. Not about facts.— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) September 24, 2019
He now appears to have changed his mind.
Trump ‘privately encouraged House GOP members to impeach Biden’
Good morning, US politics blog readers. The speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, on Tuesday announced that Republicans would open an impeachment investigation into Joe Biden over unproven allegations of corruption in his family’s business dealings.
In a statement, McCarthy said the House investigations into the Biden family this year uncovered a “culture of corruption” that demands deeper review. But it is unclear if the Republican party has the evidence to substantiate the long-running claims, or even the votes for impeachment.
In response, White House spokesperson Ian Sams described McCarthy’s move as “extreme politics at its worst”, while a spokesperson for the Biden-Harris 2024 campaign said the House speaker has “cemented his role as the Trump campaign’s super-surrogate by turning the House of Representatives into an arm of his presidential campaign”.
Since gaining the House majority in January, House GOP members have aggressively investigated the president and his son, Hunter Biden, over allegations that echo those that Donald Trump has made for years against Biden and his family.
Trump has talked regularly with members of the House Freedom Caucus and other congressional Republicans who pushed for a Biden impeachment inquiry, according to a New York Times report published this morning. The former president dined with the far-right congresswoman, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said she told Trump she wanted the impeachment inquiry to be “long and excruciatingly painful for Joe Biden”. A Politico report on Tuesday wrote that the former president has been speaking on a weekly basis with House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik, who was the first member of Republican leadership to come out in support of impeachment.
Here’s what else we’re watching today:
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8.30am Eastern time: August consumer price index date released by the bureau of labor statistics.
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10am: House majority whip Tom Emmer, House Republican conference chair Elise Stefanik, House oversight chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and congressman Ken Calvert will speak to reporters after the GOP conference meeting.
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10.45am House Democratic caucus chair Peter Aguilar and vice-chair Ted Lieu will speak to reporters after their closed-party meeting.
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1pm: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein will brief reporters.
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2.30pm: President Joe Biden will hold a meeting of his “cancer cabinet”.
