Durbin slams majority of House GOP as 'out of control'

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said on Tuesday that the “majority” of House Republicans were “out of control” following news that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was directing House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

In an interview on CNN’s “The Lead,” Durbin railed against McCarthy’s leadership style and drew a contrast between Republicans in the House and his GOP colleagues in the Senate, some of whom he praised for saying publicly that there was not sufficient evidence to back an impeachment inquiry into Biden.

“Here's the bottom line: The majority [of] the Republicans in the House of Representatives are out of control. That's it, bottom line, and we look at what's going on in the Senate. We are trying to pass critical bipartisan appropriation bills for the first time in five years,” Durbin said.

Durbin accused McCarthy of only opening the impeachment inquiry as a “diversion” because he is struggling to get his conference, which holds the House majority by a slim margin, to agree to fund the government. 

“He cannot govern. He cannot get his majority in the House of Representatives to do the basics to keep the government's lights on. And so he's decided for a diversion: Let's talk about something else that they might agree on — an impeachment,” Durbin said. “What a waste of time and money and really a reckless strategy that endangers our economy and hurts innocent people.”

Durbin said “yes” when asked whether he was uncomfortable with Hunter Biden’s business dealings and with his apparent leveraging of his father’s prominent name and position in order to aid himself professionally, but he quickly added he had similar concerns about Jared Kushner’s behavior under President Trump.

“We've got to establish some standards for members of family. I'm not saying that Hunter Biden broke the law or that there should be any punishment involved in it, but I don't feel good about the situation if it looks like a son or daughter is capitalizing on the public achievement of their parents. Yes, that does raise some questions in my mind,” Durbin said.