The issue the House far right plans to hang him on is whether McCarthy will go to the mattresses on spending limits the Freedom Caucus is proposing.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pulled the trigger on an impeachment inquiry yesterday — and may have ended up hitting himself with the bullet.
McCarthy eschewed the traditional approach of holding a full House vote on the impeachment inquiry issue and simply declared the inquiry into existence. He designated three committees — Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means — to conduct the inquiry.
In the impeachment inquiry of President Clinton and the first impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump, a vote by the full House triggered the investigation. However, the second Trump impeachment saw Democrats unilaterally declaring the inquiry open.
The reason McCarthy didn’t want to hold a full House vote is that it was by no means assured that he would get a majority. Republicans from districts that Biden won in 2020 are a little gun shy about impeachment without more evidence.
The reality is the impeachment issue has bled into the government shutdown issue. And McCarthy now finds himself between a rock and a hard place. He has at least a dozen members of the Freedom Caucus gunning for him, itching to hold a vote to “vacate the chair” and hold another election for Speaker of the House.
