White House: McCarthy ‘lying’ to cave to far-right in ‘impeachment stunt’

The White House on Tuesday accused Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) of lying in order to cave to the far-right members of the House Republican Conference and their push for an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel’s Office, dug into McCarthy’s Fox News appearance Monday evening, saying he “continued lying about President Biden — making a series of plainly false, widely debunked attacks in order to promote the extreme far right’s baseless impeachment stunt that even some members of McCarthy’s own caucus are expressing concerns about pursuing.”

McCarthy on Fox News compared the Biden administration to the Nixon administration, arguing that they both used the federal government to obstruct congressional investigations. Sams called that comparison “bizarre” and “demonstrably false,” highlighting that the Biden administration’s Treasury Department and the FBI provided the now GOP-led House Oversight Committee with records and access.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) addresses reporters following a press conference on Thursday, July 27, 2023 to discuss their initiatives passed before the House’s August district work period.

McCarthy on Fox News echoed what House Republicans have characterized as bribes involving then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.

Sams referred to the testimony released last week of Hunter Biden’s old business associate Devon Archer. In the testimony, Archer couldn’t corroborate allegations that Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky made two $5 million payments to Hunter Biden and his father. Archer also said he would disagree with the conclusion that then-Vice President Biden was bribed by Zlochevsky. 

Last month, Republicans released an FBI form that contains an unverified tip that Biden was involved in such a scheme. The tip in the FBI form rests on a years-long allegation that Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in funding to Ukraine unless then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was ousted. 

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The White House has denied any wrongdoing, and evidence has never been raised showing that Biden called for Shokin’s ouster to help his son.

“Speaker McCarthy has decided the truth should not get in the way of his and House Republicans’ relentless efforts to smear the President. They are prioritizing their own extreme, far-right political agenda at the expense of focusing on what really matters to the American people: working together to make their lives better,” Sams said Tuesday.

He called pursuing an impeachment inquiry a “shameless and baseless” stunt and said that McCarthy and the GOP should instead be working with the president to bring down inflation and grow the economy.

“That is, after all, what the American people sent their leaders to Washington to do,” Sams said.

The statement from Sams is the latest example of the White House recently becoming punchier going into 2024, increasingly jumping in and bashing the GOP. 

The White House has hammered Republicans and McCarthy over floating that the House would move toward an impeachment inquiry and has been quick with memos and statements to criticize the GOP attacks on the president.