White House says GOP ‘desperate to distract’ after McCarthy floats Garland impeachment probe

The White House on Monday bashed House Republicans for being “desperate to distract” from their economic agenda after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) floated the idea of an impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Merrick Garland over the handling of investigations into Hunter Biden.

“Speaker McCarthy and the extreme House Republicans are proving they have no positive agenda to actually help the American people on the issues most important to them and their families,” said Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, in a statement first obtained by The Hill.

McCarthy said Sunday there may be a possible impeachment inquiry into Garland over alleged political bias and “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, with the push fueled by an IRS whistleblower’s claims about tax crime investigations into President Biden’s son.

“If the whistleblowers’ allegations are true, this will be a significant part of a larger impeachment inquiry into Merrick Garland’s weaponization of DOJ,” McCarthy said in a tweet.

Sams argued that president and Cabinet officials are traversing the country this week to tout Biden’s economic agenda, all while Republicans are focused on pushing out partisan stunts. 

“Perhaps Congressional Republicans are desperate to distract from their own plan to give even more tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations and add more than $3 trillion to the deficit, but instead of pushing more partisan stunts intended only to get themselves attention on the far right, they should work with the President to actually put the middle class and working Americans first and expand the historic progress to lower costs, create jobs, boost U.S. manufacturing and small businesses, and make prescription drugs more affordable,” he said.

The White House also argued Monday that impeaching Garland and the handling of investigations into the president’s son is not a priority for American families.

“It’s unfortunate that congressional Republicans want to continue to focus on an issue that Americans — that’s not their priority,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “We would welcome congressional Republicans to join us on working on behalf of the American people.”

McCarthy’s interest in a Garland impeachment is a change in how the Speaker has handled calls from Republicans to impeach members of the Biden administration, and he has vowed any impeachment proceedings would not be political.

Last week, House Republicans released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who were involved in investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes, alleging prosecutors slow-walked the case against him.

That investigation led to the president’s son reaching a deal to plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay income tax and an agreement relating to unlawful possession of a weapon last week.

President Biden and Garland have both defended the integrity of the Justice Department, and the president has stressed that the department acts independently.

Updated: 3:1 5 p.m. ET