White House: McCarthy moving to impeachment would be to ‘throw red meat to the right wing’

The White House on Friday argued that if Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) moves forward with an impeachment inquiry, it would be to throw ‘red meat’ to the ring wing of the GOP.

The comments come after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) warned Thursday that she would not vote to fund the government if the House doesn’t vote to open the impeachment inquiry. She also put other conditions on her vote, including ending funding for the war in Ukraine and eliminating coronavirus-related mandates.

“One of the House’s most powerful members, Marjorie Taylor Greene, just admitted that the House Republican impeachment is only a partisan stunt driven by the most extreme, far-right members,” said Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations.

“If Speaker McCarthy proceeds to an impeachment simply to throw red meat to the right wing, as a condition for or distraction from far-right GOP efforts to shut down the government, it will prove once and for all this is a baseless, politically motivated exercise not rooted in evidence and not about getting to the truth,” he said.

McCarthy said in an interview with Breitbart News on Friday that any impeachment inquiry would begin through a formal vote on the House floor, “and not through a declaration by one person.” 

McCarthy has been increasingly signaling his intent to launch an impeachment inquiry when the House returns in September.

The White House pointed to comments from other Republican lawmakers saying they don’t support moving forward with impeachment, citing Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who has said impeachment is a “shiny object,” and an anonymous lawmaker who told Fox News that McCarthy was using “impeachment to distract from the issues that he has with the appropriations bills.”

Sams said the House Republicans have “wasted time and millions of taxpayer dollars” into investigations into Biden and his family’s business dealings, which he called a “wild goose chase” that is turning up “zero evidence to support their outlandish and false allegations.”

“Instead of doubling down on an even more costly and fruitless political revenge tour, House Republicans should join the President to work on the issues that really matter to Americans’ lives — and stop this threat of a government shutdown that would hurt our economy, cost people their jobs, and endanger FEMA and disaster response, efforts to combat fentanyl, and military pay,” Sams said.

On Thursday night, the White House bashed Greene for her warning that tied funding the government to impeachment, calling her the “hardcore fringe” of the Republican Party. The White House has been warning House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry would only backfire on a fractured conference.