McCarthy’s vow to open Biden impeachment probe puts vulnerable California Republicans in a tough spot

WASHINGTON —  House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Tuesday that he is directing a House committee to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

But the GOP’s narrow majority in the House is at risk in the 2024 election, and the move toward impeaching Biden — especially without compelling evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors — will put the chamber’s most vulnerable Republicans in a tough spot.

Impeachment is unpopular in the 18 districts that Biden won in 2020 that are held by House Republicans, according to an August poll commissioned by the Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic-aligned nonprofit. Five of those districts are in California, represented by John Duarte of Modesto, Young Kim of La Habra, David Valadao of Hanford, Michelle Steel of Seal Beach and Mike Garcia of Santa Clarita.

Voters’ opinions on impeaching Biden break down mostly along partisan lines: Of those polled who backed former President Trump, 84% said moving to impeach Biden would be a serious effort to investigate him; 92% of Biden voters said it would be a partisan stunt. But Trump voters are slightly more divided on the subject than Biden voters. In swing districts, that gap could make all the difference.

California’s five most vulnerable GOP incumbents don’t seem to want to discuss impeachment. Their offices all declined to comment or did not respond when The Times reached out last week to ask about it.

But that silence won’t stop Democrats and their allies from hammering the issue. The Congressional Integrity Project launched a digital ad campaign Tuesday against all 18 Biden-district Republicans.

“After seven weeks at home, Representative Mike Garcia is returning to Washington,” one ad says. “America faces critical priorities: healthcare, the economy, the cost of living. But MAGA Republican leaders like McCarthy and Marjorie Taylor Greene want to focus on their bogus impeachment of President Biden, even though they have no evidence. All to protect Donald Trump.”

The ad urges viewers to call Garcia’s office to “tell him to focus on real priorities. Not Bogus impeachment stunts.”

The Constitution does not require a House vote to open an impeachment inquiry, legal experts say, and previous probes have begun without one.

If McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) had held a vote on an impeachment inquiry, Democrats were all but certain to unanimously oppose it, and some vulnerable Republicans may also have voted against it. A few dissenters could have killed the effort.

Even some far-right lawmakers oppose the probe; one member of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus called the push for impeachment “absurd.”

The effort comes at a precarious moment: The federal government will shut down by the end of the month unless both chambers can agree on legislation to send to the White House. McCarthy has floated a measure to extend the deadline because lawmakers are not yet close to a deal.

But even if McCarthy can strike a compromise with Senate Democratic leader Charles E. Schumer of New York, he will need almost every House Republican to be on board.

Some far-right lawmakers had threatened to withhold their votes on a spending deal or even oust McCarthy as speaker unless he made a serious move toward impeachment.

The exact target of a formal Biden impeachment inquiry is unclear. Many GOP lawmakers have highlighted son Hunter Biden’s legal issues, and others have cited the president’s handling of the U.S. military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan or pointed to unsubstantiated claims of malfeasance while he was vice president.

The White House, its allies and even some Republicans have denounced GOP moves toward impeachment as partisan and unfounded.

“Republicans are engaged in a purely political exercise,” Kyle Herrig, executive director of the Congressional Integrity Project, told The Times. “They’re looking to impeach the president without a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing.”

They had “better have some hard and compelling evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors,” Whit Ayres, a GOP pollster at North Star Opinion Research, told The Times.

Ayers said that “otherwise, it just looks like a publicity stunt,” which wouldn’t sit well with swing voters.