GOP lawmaker suggests there’s ‘pressure’ on Republicans to impeach Biden if party wins the House
By Sonnet Swire, CNN
GOP Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said Sunday she believes there is “pressure” for House Republicans to move to impeach President Joe Biden if they gain control of the chamber after the midterm elections.
“I believe there’s pressure on the Republicans to put that forward and have that vote,” Mace told NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” when asked if she foresees impeachment proceedings should her party win control of the House. “I think that’s what some folks are considering.”
But the freshman lawmaker added: “If that happens, I do believe it’s divisive.”
Mace did not mention the source of the alleged pressure and was not asked to elaborate on who is considering the move.
Asked Sunday how she would vote if an impeachment vote came to the floor, Mace said: “I will not vote for impeachment of any president if I feel that due process was stripped away, for anyone. I typically vote constitutionally, regardless of who is in power.”
CNN reported earlier this year that hard-line elements of the House Republican Conference were agitating to launch impeachment proceedings against Biden if the GOP takes power after the midterms — a move GOP leaders have so far declined to embrace.
House Republicans are also plotting revenge on the select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, insurrection, CNN has reported. Former President Donald Trump has been leaning heavily on his Capitol Hill allies to defend him against a slew of damaging revelations about his role in the deadly attack on the US Capitol. And as Republicans search for ways to undermine those findings, their party has started to lay the groundwork to investigate the January 6 panel itself. Some of Trump’s fiercest acolytes have also begun publicly pushing for hearings and probes into his baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
While House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has vowed to conduct aggressive oversight and investigations in a GOP-led House, it’s unclear just how far he would be willing to go when it comes to January 6 and the 2020 presidential election.
Mace, who flipped a Charleston-area seat in 2020, voted to certify Biden’s presidential election victory, earning Trump’s wrath. Faced with charges of insufficient loyalty to the former President, she drew a Trump-backed primary challenger but ended up prevailing by 8 points in her June primary.
Mace told NBC she was “very much hopeful” to see “a deep bench of Republicans and Democrats who will be running for president” in 2024. But she left the door open to possibly supporting Trump again if he were the 2024 GOP nominee for president.
“I’m going to support whomever Republicans nominate in ’24,” she said.
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CNN’s Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju, Gabby Orr and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
