House

Swalwell pronounces ‘time of death’ for GOP’s Biden impeachment push

by Tara Suter - 03/20/24 7:38 PM ET

Representative Eric Swalwell speaks during a hearing. — Andrew Harnik, Associated Press file
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) speaks during a House Intelligence Committee hearing, Nov. 15, 2019, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) pronounced a “time of death” for the House GOP’s impeachment push against President Biden at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing Wednesday.

“I dare you impeach,” Swalwell said to committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.). “But you won’t, because you don’t have the evidence. And because you don’t have the evidence, you don’t have the votes. Guys, it’s dead. And so, I’m here to pronounce the time of death.”

The California Democrat then stood up and wrote “5:16 [p.m.]” on a board held by a person behind him that had the words “BIDEN IMPEACHMENT TIME OF DEATH” across the top.

“5:16, Biden impeachment’s dead,” Swalwell said shortly after he sat back down from writing on the board. “Joe Biden has been acquitted.”

Swalwell’s pronouncement followed him listing 10 reasons “impeachment is dead” to Comer, which included apparent references to Alexander Smirnov, an FBI informant indicted for making up an allegation important to the Republicans’ impeachment case against Biden, and the fact that Jason Galanis, one of the witnesses who testified at the hearing Wednesday, is incarcerated.

“At what point are you gonna fish, or cut bait?” Swalwell exclaimed. “So, I just had to tell you, it’s over.”

Swalwell’s comments mirrored comments from his Oversight and Accountability Committee colleague Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the same hearing, in which she pushed Republicans to name the exact crime they are accusing the president of.

“At this point, the story isn’t the fact that the basis of this impeachment inquiry is wrong. The story is, ‘Why it is proceeding anyway?’” Ocasio-Cortez said, saying that the GOP has “no charges.”

“I have yet to hear in the chairman’s opening the allegation that they are specifically charging the president of the United States with. I am hearing about the ‘Biden family.’ I am hearing about this and that. I am not hearing the specific allegation by this committee. What is it? It is not here. And that is the problem,” she said.