Washington – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he supports a pair of resolutions that he says are efforts to “destroy” former President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
California Republicans and GOP representatives spoke to reporters at the Capitol Friday afternoon. Marjorie Taylor-Green of Georgia and Elise Stefanik of New York said they would support the dual effort. “Articles of impeachment are no longer authorized as if they had never been passed by the full House of Representatives.”
Trump is the only president in US history to be impeached twice. He First charged In 2019, he tried to have the Democratic-controlled House impeach his main political opponent, Joe Biden, to pressure the Ukrainian government for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He Accused Again in 2021 on charges of “inciting insurrection” for his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. The Senate voted to acquit him in both cases.
McCarthy said the expulsion resolutions would be referred to House committees and did not provide an estimated timetable for their consideration. When CBS News and others pressed the speaker on whether he supported a vote to “repeal” Trump’s impeachment over the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, he said, “I voted against both impeachments. The second impeachment lacked due process.”
McCarthy, who led his party’s Jan. 6 boycott of the House Select Committee, declined to respond when asked by CBS News whether he would join Trump’s calls for the defendants to be pardoned on Jan. 6.
In her statement announcing the resolutions, Stefanik said Trump “has been rightly acquitted, and it is past time to remove the Democrats’ false smears against not only President Trump’s name, but millions of patriots across the country.” “It is clear that President Trump’s impeachment is nothing more than a witch hunt that needs to be erased from our history,” Taylor-Green said.
It’s unclear whether the repeal resolutions will have a path forward in the Democratic-controlled Senate, or if they will have any practical impact beyond political messages. The plans drew condemnation from some House Democrats.
A Democratic representative from New York. Dan Goldman told CBS News that the effort was “further continuation of House Republicans acting as Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded lawyers.”
Asked if he had reached out to his fellow New Yorker, Stefanik, about changing or withdrawing the resolution, Goldman said, “No, the congresswoman has not reached out to Stefanik.”
