MTG takes swipe at Speaker Johnson over slowed pace of Biden impeachment proceedings

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) aired her frustrations against Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) over the weekend, lamenting the newly elected leader has slowed progress on impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden.

“Not long ago we had a Speaker that believed in impeachment so much that he launched an inquiry without a floor vote, but you were told he was bad,” Greene said in a post on X. “After 8 R’s and all D’s ousted him, we found checks to Joe Biden and evidence of a massive money laundering scheme and now the new guy you are told is way better doesn’t want to impeach. Such progress.”

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Greene’s statement comes after Johnson reportedly told centrist Republicans in a closed-door meeting this week that there is insufficient evidence to plow ahead with impeachment proceedings against the president. Instead, the new speaker is advising lawmakers to take their time with the investigation and not press ahead with a predetermined outcome.

The strategy takes on a more reserved tone than many of the rank-and-file Republicans who are pushing for Biden’s impeachment, especially after the House Oversight Committee released bank records suggesting Biden may have paid his brother $240,000 in two installments a year apart, each just weeks before James Biden wrote his brother a check for the same amount.

Republicans on the committee had raised concerns that the checks represented evidence Joe Biden personally profited from his family’s private business dealings, something he has long denied. James Biden only had the cash to send his brother a check for $40,000 in 2017 and one for $200,000 in 2018 because businesses he worked with had paid him similar amounts just before he wrote the checks.

But the pair of wire transfers in the possession of the House Oversight Committee appear to indicate that Joe Biden, through an account controlled by his attorneys, was owed the money James Biden sent him.

However, Republicans have pushed back on that claim, arguing the records support their claims that Biden benefited from his family’s peddling schemes. As a result, the Oversight Committee issued its latest round of subpoenas on Friday, compelling testimony from Hunter Biden, James Biden, and a number of Hunter’s business associates.

Aside from the high-profile subpoenas, the progress of the Oversight investigation has become less publicized — especially after Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said he wasn’t eager to hold more hearings.

“I don’t know that I want to hold any more hearings, to be honest with you,” he told reporters last month.

There also appears to be less of an incentive to push for Biden’s impeachment now that polling shows him trailing behind former President Donald Trump in key swing states. That was another reason cited by Johnson in the closed-door meeting not to hurry the inquiry, according to the Washington Post. 

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A national poll released by the New York Times last week showed Biden losing to Trump in five of the six most crucial battleground states next year, prompting Democrats to consider whether the 80-year-old president is the best option to lead the ticket. Across the six states, including Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, Biden trails Trump by an average of 48% to 44%.

But when Biden is taken out of the equation, the poll showed that a generic unnamed “Democratic candidate” could shift the race in Democrats’ favor — turning their deficit into an eight-point lead against Trump.