White House: If GOP votes on impeachment inquiry, Greene ‘truly calling the shots’
If the House GOP moves forward with a vote authorizing an impeachment inquiry of President Biden, it will show that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is "truly calling the shots," the White House said in a new memo.
The memo is the latest effort by the White House to tie the House GOP's drive for an impeachment inquiry to its most hard-core members such as Greene, a fiery supporter of former President Trump.
The vote would be a tough one for GOP lawmakers representing districts won by Biden, and serves as a warning for how the White House and Democrats are likely to use votes to open an impeachment inquiry as a political weapon against them.
“Marjorie Taylor Greene may be clamoring for the House to proceed to impeachment, but numerous House Republicans have already gone on record that the evidence just doesn’t back it up," Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight, said in the memo.
"Americans already overwhelmingly believe House Republicans are prioritizing the wrong things, and any vote to move ahead with MTG’s favorite pastime would reveal that she is truly calling the shots in this extreme House Republican conference.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has signaled a vote to open an inquiry is coming, after previous Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opted against holding a floor vote to formally open an inquiry.
In the new memo exclusively obtained first by The Hill, the White House outlined that some House Republicans have said there isn’t enough evidence to support formal impeachment proceedings, including Reps. Ken Buck (Colo.) in an op-ed and Rep. Don Bacon (Neb.) in a comment.
It also pointed to reporting from The Washington Post last month that said Johnson “indicated that there is insufficient evidence at the moment to initiate formal impeachment proceedings.”
Sams highlighted a survey from Impact Research published in November that found 68 percent of Americans think Republicans are prioritizing the wrong things.
“All these House Republicans and their colleagues should answer for why they would change tune now and go along with her baseless exercise to smear President Biden when their allegations have already been thoroughly fact-checked and debunked, instead of focusing on the issues they claimed they would prioritize when they ran for office, like lowering inflation, growing the economy, and strengthening national security,” Sams said.
The increase in pushback from the White House comes after House Republicans have been weighing whether to shore up their impeachment inquiry by taking a formal vote on the matter.
Sams last week pushed back on Republicans’ claims that the investigation has been stonewalled by the White House, noting it has sent letters to Comer and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), offering to meet or talk further and that the president’s son, Hunter Biden, has offered to provide testimony; last week, the younger Biden offered to testify publicly.