House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to move forward with a long-shot bid to remove Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House if she pursues a second impeachment of President Trump.
After saying last week he wasn’t interested in trying to oust Pelosi from her perch through an obscure procedural motion, the California Republican has changed his tone.
McCarthy was asked Thursday on Fox & Friends about Pelosi recently saying, “We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now,” to which the minority leader responded, “If she revamps a baseless impeachment, we will work to remove her from the speakership.”
“Because we can make a motion on the floor to have another vote on speaker and whether she stays. That would put a lot of people in a tough situation. Because if she is going after the president for impeachment because he is upholding his constitutional duty, that would be very interesting for any member to stand with her on that decision. You raise your hand when you get elected to Congress and sworn in to uphold the Constitution,” the California congressman added. “You want to impeach a president from doing the duty of what he is told to do in the Constitution? That would be shocking to me. But it wouldn’t be far-fetched for the speaker to try.”
The House Freedom Caucus, a small but influential conservative faction, urged McCarthy to use a little-used resolution that would have likely been blocked by House Democrats. The House minority leader initially demurred, arguing that it is more important to beat Democrats on the ballot in November.
“Forty-something days from now, we will remove them,” McCarthy said, referring to the election.
Pelosi’s comments about not ruling out a second impeachment came in the context of the president pledging to move ahead with filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court following Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last week. The president has said he will nominate a female successor this weekend, and the GOP Senate leadership believes they have all the votes necessary for a speedy confirmation, despite calls by Democrats to hold the seat open for the winner of November’s election.
