The top House Republican said Tuesday that Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that the House is now in the middle of an impeachment inquiry was an empty gesture, saying it’s no different than what Democrats have been doing for months.
“What she said today is no different than what’s been going on,” Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, told reporters an hour after Mrs. Pelosi reversed herself and said she now backs beginning the impeachment process against Mr. Trump.
Mrs. Pelosi said she has told six committee chairs, who are already investigating Mr. Trump, that they are now operating under the “umbrella of impeachment inquiry.”
But at least one of them, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, has been calling his investigations an impeachment inquiry for months, and Mr. McCarthy said just using those words is irrelevant.
“She cannot decide unilaterally what happens here,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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