After a summer of speculation, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) officially announced on Tuesday that Republicans plan to launch an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings while he was vice president.
“This is huge news,” Megyn said. “McCarthy had been under significant pressure by a certain wing of his party – sort of the [Rep.] Matt Gaetz wing – to do this but even more so-called ‘traditional Republicans’ have backed it and thought it’s time.”
On Tuesday’s show, Megyn was joined by Glenn Beck, host of BlazeTV’s The Glenn Beck Program, to discuss the McCarthy’s confirmation, the reaction from Washington, DC, and what the inquiry might yield.
McCarthy’s Announcement
Speaking at the Capitol on Tuesday morning, Speaker McCarthy said he is “directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.” According to McCarthy, House Republicans have “uncovered serious and credible allegations into President Biden’s conduct” – including “abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption” – that will serve as the basis of an impeachment inquiry.
Given what has been found so far, McCarthy called the inquiry the “logical next step” in order to give House committees “the full power to gather the full facts and answers for the American public.” He said he did not “make this decision lightly,” but he believes “these facts concern all Americans” regardless of party affiliation.
House GOP members will reportedly hold a meeting on Thursday for key committee chairs, including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), to lay out their latest findings.
Washington Responds
It did not take long for the reaction to start rolling in from various corners of Washington, DC. White House spokesman for oversight and investigations Ian Sams dismissed McCarthy’s announcement as political pandering. “Opening impeachment despite zero evidence of wrongdoing by POTUS is simply red meat for the extreme right wing, so they can keep baselessly attacking him,” he said.
On MSNBC, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) claimed the GOP is acting on behalf of former President Donald Trump and sought to tie it to the looming threat of a government shutdown if funding is not agreed to by September 30. “They are succumbing to Donald Trump, and they are allowing Donald Trump to hold our economy hostage,” she said. “They know they have nothing there, that there has been no evidence.”
Republicans in the Senate, meanwhile, have expressed doubt about the evidence, timing, and prudence of the proceedings. “It really comes to how do you prioritize your time? I don’t know of anybody who believes [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer will take it up and actually have a trial and convict a sitting president,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) told The Hill. “Members of the House don’t really care what I think. All I can tell you, it’s unlikely to be successful in the Senate.”
Earlier this week, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) cautioned against impeaching a sitting president. “[It] should generally be avoided for the interest of the country,” he said. “It can’t become routine.”
Former New Jersey governor and current 2024 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie told MSNBC on Tuesday that he does not support McCarthy’s decision. “I don’t see evidence yet that would support impeaching Biden,” he said. “And I think we’re cheapening impeachment by doing that kind of thing.”
A Closer Look at the Evidence
There are already questions from the left and right about the scope of the evidence and whether or not it is even possible to impeach a sitting president for things that happened while he was vice president, but Megyn said that is what this process is for. “It’s not an actual impeachment,” she said. “It’s an inquiry into whether they should conduct impeachment proceedings.”
Based on what he has seen so far, Beck said the corruption is apparent. “As an average person, not knowing the law… not knowing how these things really flesh out, I think there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence now that shows this is really a crooked family,” he noted.
Megyn agreed that while she hasn’t seen a “proven crime” yet, she doesn’t necessarily think there has to be one. “I think they’ve proven already – without having the full subpoena power to be able to get off the bank records… that they are corrupt,” she said. For starters, “Joe Biden knew that his son Hunter was influence peddling on that Burisma board in Ukraine, cashing checks as a result of his relationship to Joe Biden,” she shared. “Joe Biden allowed at a minimum – but it’s beyond the minimum – the appearance of impropriety for well over a year as his son became a millionaire on the Ukrainian’s dime.”
And then there is the elder Biden’s role in the firing of Ukraine’s then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin in late 2015 that, as we recently learned, went against the Obama State Department’s recommendations. “Without any pause – given the relationship that his son had forged with this Burisma board in Ukraine – he went over there and fired the guy investigating that Burisma board president without cause,” Megyn said. “I just laid out the best case scenario for Joe Biden.”
Given what we already know about the Biden family, Megyn said the lack of interest from the media and certain segments of the Republican Party are inexcusable. ”Nobody wants to look into it,” she lamented. “These guys don’t understand how to fight.”
That’s where, Megyn said, the GOP could take a page out of the Democrats’ playbook. “Do you think the Democrats thought they were going to get Trump when he had a Republican Senate when they impeached him not once but twice,” she asked. “They knew they weren’t going to get him… [but] they wanted to make a point. The Republicans are rolling over before the fight even begins.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Beck by tuning in to episode 625 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.