GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested Sunday that the House GOP focus on issues voters care about instead of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, arguing that it will likely not lead anywhere.
DeSantis told NBC’s Kristen Welker on “Meet the Press” that while he believes the Biden family is “corrupt” and that opening an impeachment inquiry is “justifiable,” the effort will likely not lead anywhere. He said that House Republicans have been ignoring issues that voters care about, such as border security, the economy and the “overstepping” of federal agencies.
“However, I think they run the risk of doing an inquiry that doesn’t necessarily lead anywhere while they’ve been ignoring a lot of the problems that our voters are talking about,” DeSantis said.
Three GOP-led House committees have been investigating Biden and his family’s business dealings for months. Their findings pushed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to open an impeachment inquiry in September — a move that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has also backed since stepping into the leadership role.
DeSantis’s comments also come as House Republicans plan to hold a vote to formalize their impeachment inquiry into Biden within the next two weeks. An impeachment into Biden lacks the support needed in the Democrat-led Senate, where Senate Republicans have also been signaling opposition to the move.
DeSantis reiterated that House Republicans need to address other issues as they are conducting the inquiry.
“And so if you’re doing the inquiry, which, again, I think is justifiable, you also have to be addressing all these other issue,” DeSantis said Sunday. “And I think that there’s a feeling out here that they’re not focused on the key issues that they wanted to see addressed. Clearly, on the budget, there’s been no progress on that.”
“So, make sure you’re not ignoring all these other issues. And don’t use that inquiry as kind of a Trojan horse to not then meet your responsibilities on all these other things,” he added.