The Constitution designates the speaker as the presiding officer of the House of Representatives and, throughout our history, this has been the case — until now.
The House is currently being run not by Speaker Kevin McCarthy but by backbenchers Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Two days before departing for the August recess, McCarthy (Calif.) told his House Republican caucus that they could not justify launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden over unproven (and unfounded) allegations. But on Aug. 31, Greene announced that she would not “vote to fund the government unless we have passed an impeachment inquiry.” Later, Gaetz announced that he would speak on the House floor on Sept. 12, the first day the chamber reconvened after recess, to detail plans to seek McCarthy’s ouster as speaker if he impeded the impeachment of Biden. Former president Donald Trump joined in the impeach-Biden lobbying.
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McCarthy, whose main strength as a leader has always been his steadfast devotion to self-preservation, recognized that he was about to get trampled by the impeachment parade. So he stepped out in front of it and pretended to be the drum major. “Today, I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” he announced in a hastily arranged statement outside his Capitol office on Tuesday morning — an hour before Gaetz was scheduled to deliver his speech on the floor denouncing McCarthy.
This set off a perverse competition to claim the credit for forcing McCarthy to bow and scrape: Was it Greene, who as a QAnon devotee and new congresswoman in January 2021 filed impeachment articles against Biden on the first full day of his presidency? Or was it Gaetz, subject of a newly revived House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, illegal drug use and corruption?
“When @SpeakerMcCarthy makes his announcement in moments, remember that … I pushed him for weeks,” Gaetz posted on social media.
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“Correction my friend,” retorted MTG in her own post. “I introduced articles of impeachment against Joe Biden … on his very first day in office. You wouldn’t cosponsor those and I had to drag you kicking and screaming …”
Gaetz, in a conference call with reporters, raised the ante, demanding the immediate impeachment of Biden — without a pesky inquiry. “I’m for it today. I’m for it tomorrow. I’m for it the next day,” Gaetz said. “Is Kevin McCarthy? And if he isn’t, perhaps my dear friend Ms. Greene could be more persuasive with him.”
McCarthy’s very public surrender was his most pathetic moment to date in a short tenure that has had many. In a flailing attempt to preserve his job as speaker, he set the House on an ineluctable course toward deploying the gravest punishment contemplated under the Constitution against the president. He did so even though, after months of lurid probing of the financial (and sexual) dealings of Biden’s drug-addicted son, House Republicans have produced no evidence of wrongdoing by the president — only wild, unsubstantiated allegations of bribery. And McCarthy did so by unilaterally authorizing the impeachment inquiry even though he has said for years, and as recently as two weeks ago, that such a momentous act could be taken only by a vote of the whole House.
He is trying to save himself at the expense of his Republican colleagues from competitive districts, who will now be forced to defend two ludicrous claims: That the millions of dollars brought in by Biden family members trading on their famous name is a monumental scandal, but the billions of dollars brought in by Trump family members using similar means is totally kosher; and that Biden, the man Republicans have spent years portraying as senile and over-handled, is really a hands-on criminal mastermind.
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And McCarthy’s cravenness didn’t even work! His surrender earned him no goodwill whatsoever with the far right. The next day, House Republican leaders brought to the floor the annual defense appropriations bill, which routinely passes year after year because, without it, U.S. troops would not be funded. Yet five minutes before the House gaveled in for its legislative session on Wednesday to conduct its first substantive business since July, the Republican whip’s office announced that the House would instead go back into recess. Right-wingers from the House Freedom Caucus, angry that McCarthy had not (yet) caved to their long and growing list of demands for government-wide spending cuts and policy changes, blocked the House from even debating the defense bill, much less passing it.
Throughout House offices, televisions cut from the floor to a blue screen (a familiar sight for much of this dysfunctional year) announcing: “The House is in recess subject to the call of the chair.” More than four hours later, House GOP leaders still hadn’t come up with the votes to begin debate. They called off the day’s session and shelved the defense bill for the rest of the week.
The House is currently being run not by Speaker Kevin McCarthy but by backbenchers Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
Two days before departing for the August recess, McCarthy (Calif.) told his House Republican caucus that they could not justify launching a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden over unproven (and unfounded) allegations. But on Aug. 31, Greene announced that she would not “vote to fund the government unless we have passed an impeachment inquiry.” Later, Gaetz announced that he would speak on the House floor on Sept. 12, the first day the chamber reconvened after recess, to detail plans to seek McCarthy’s ouster as speaker if he impeded the impeachment of Biden. Former president Donald Trump joined in the impeach-Biden lobbying.
ADVERTISING
McCarthy, whose main strength as a leader has always been his steadfast devotion to self-preservation, recognized that he was about to get trampled by the impeachment parade. So he stepped out in front of it and pretended to be the drum major. “Today, I am directing our House committee to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden,” he announced in a hastily arranged statement outside his Capitol office on Tuesday morning — an hour before Gaetz was scheduled to deliver his speech on the floor denouncing McCarthy.
This set off a perverse competition to claim the credit for forcing McCarthy to bow and scrape: Was it Greene, who as a QAnon devotee and new congresswoman in January 2021 filed impeachment articles against Biden on the first full day of his presidency? Or was it Gaetz, subject of a newly revived House Ethics Committee investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, illegal drug use and corruption?
“When @SpeakerMcCarthy makes his announcement in moments, remember that … I pushed him for weeks,” Gaetz posted on social media.
ADVERTISING
“Correction my friend,” retorted MTG in her own post. “I introduced articles of impeachment against Joe Biden … on his very first day in office. You wouldn’t cosponsor those and I had to drag you kicking and screaming …”
Gaetz, in a conference call with reporters, raised the ante, demanding the immediate impeachment of Biden — without a pesky inquiry. “I’m for it today. I’m for it tomorrow. I’m for it the next day,” Gaetz said. “Is Kevin McCarthy? And if he isn’t, perhaps my dear friend Ms. Greene could be more persuasive with him.”
McCarthy’s very public surrender was his most pathetic moment to date in a short tenure that has had many. In a flailing attempt to preserve his job as speaker, he set the House on an ineluctable course toward deploying the gravest punishment contemplated under the Constitution against the president. He did so even though, after months of lurid probing of the financial (and sexual) dealings of Biden’s drug-addicted son, House Republicans have produced no evidence of wrongdoing by the president — only wild, unsubstantiated allegations of bribery. And McCarthy did so by unilaterally authorizing the impeachment inquiry even though he has said for years, and as recently as two weeks ago, that such a momentous act could be taken only by a vote of the whole House.
He is trying to save himself at the expense of his Republican colleagues from competitive districts, who will now be forced to defend two ludicrous claims: That the millions of dollars brought in by Biden family members trading on their famous name is a monumental scandal, but the billions of dollars brought in by Trump family members using similar means is totally kosher; and that Biden, the man Republicans have spent years portraying as senile and over-handled, is really a hands-on criminal mastermind.
Press Enter to skip to end of carousel
And McCarthy’s cravenness didn’t even work! His surrender earned him no goodwill whatsoever with the far right. The next day, House Republican leaders brought to the floor the annual defense appropriations bill, which routinely passes year after year because, without it, U.S. troops would not be funded. Yet five minutes before the House gaveled in for its legislative session on Wednesday to conduct its first substantive business since July, the Republican whip’s office announced that the House would instead go back into recess. Right-wingers from the House Freedom Caucus, angry that McCarthy had not (yet) caved to their long and growing list of demands for government-wide spending cuts and policy changes, blocked the House from even debating the defense bill, much less passing it.
Throughout House offices, televisions cut from the floor to a blue screen (a familiar sight for much of this dysfunctional year) announcing: “The House is in recess subject to the call of the chair.” More than four hours later, House GOP leaders still hadn’t come up with the votes to begin debate. They called off the day’s session and shelved the defense bill for the rest of the week.