Blackwell played a clip of Johnson recently explaining to a Fox News host what could happen in the coming days regarding House Republicans' opening a formal impeachment inquiry against Biden.
The speaker said, "So a formal impeachment inquiry vote on the floor will allow us to take it to the next necessary step. I think it's something we have to do at this juncture."
Johnson continued, "I suspect no Democrats will assist in this effort, but they should. The facts are so clear for everyone to see. Just the Constitution requires the house to follow the truth where it leads. We have a duty to do this. We can't stop the process."
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Referring to Johnson, Blackwell said, "He says he thinks they have the votes for this. Just a couple of days ago he was against the expulsion of [ex-US Rep.] George Santos (R-NY), and 105 members of his conference voted for it. Before we get to the actual content of the impeachment inquiry, what's on the line for him if they do not get to that point of opening it?"
Zelizer replied, "Well, I think many Republicans want this to happen...the former president depends on congressional Republicans. He always has, and I think this impeachment inquiry is being demanded, being sought, in part to muddy the waters, to make the accusations through Congress, through impeachment about President Biden. And so I think there is a lot of pressure on Speaker Johnson. But frankly, I think Speaker Johnson is happy to go along. He is part of the cohort that has been very eager to get this going."
The CNN host commented, "Yeah, there still is not the evidence. There are plenty of questions that Republicans have put forward, but no evidence, and really not even clarity on what the charge they would be focused on here. We have some experience recently, obviously, with three impeachment inquiries in the last 30 years or so. Is there a neat, clean narrative of what this means for the party that pursues the impeachment in the subsequent election?"
Zelizer said, "There is not. But, look, this still is very much more like the 1990s, right, than the last impeachment we went through. That was when Republicans went to impeach a former President Clinton, in the Monica Lewinsky story. Here, though, we don't even know what the accusations are. There's no evidence of anything at this point. And this is quite a contrast with Speaker Pelosi, who, in 2019 really didn't want to move forward with impeachment. Here they are moving forward fast without anything there. So that tells you the politics of the impeachment is much more important now than the actual substance behind what they are pursuing."
House GOP doesn't 'even know what the accusations are' in Biden impeachment inquiry: analyst
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