House Speaker Mike Johnson's Shift on Impeachment Strategy Raises Questions
House Speaker Mike Johnson's pursuit of an impeachment strategy against President Joe Biden contradicts his previous concern for the country's potential irreparable damage A CNN KFile investigation unveils Johnson's inconsistency in public comments regarding impeachment
House Speaker Mike Johnson is currently pursuing an impeachment strategy against President Joe Biden, despite his previous statement that such a move could cause "irreparable damage" to the country. This is in contrast to his criticism of Democrats four years ago, when they opened an impeachment inquiry into then-President Donald Trump, largely along party lines, less than a year before the next presidential election.
During radio interviews examined by CNN, Johnson slammed Democrats for manipulating the facts in their impeachment inquiry as a way to impeach Trump and weaken his political position. He contended that the issues Democrats had with Trump should be resolved by the voters and not through the drastic measure of impeachment.
"If you don't approve of the president, he goes on the ballot again after four years," Johnson stated in a December 2019 interview. "We have an election in 11 months. Let the people make the decision on this."
House Speaker Mike Johnson participates in a news briefing at the US Capitol in Washington, DC on November 29, addressing various topics including the impeachment inquiry involving President Joe Biden.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
In a somewhat prophetic manner, he cautioned Democrats that their actions were short-sighted and expressed concern that impeaching Trump would open a "Pandora's box" for future opposition parties in control of the House to impeach the president, something he claimed the Founding Fathers had feared. He also lamented that the effort was distracting Congress from its true legislative work.
"What happens in a few years, 10 years, 20 years from now? With a Democrat in the White House and a Republican majority in the House, will the Republican base be satisfied?" Johnson questioned in the interview. "They may demand impeachment now that the bar has been set so low and tribal politics have taken over. If politics were divided before, we are in for trouble." As the speaker of the House, Johnson appears to have disregarded his previous hesitation about impeachment and, with Republicans controlling the House, has announced his full support for an inquiry along party lines so close to a presidential election.
Johnson's office responded to CNN's questions by stating that the 2019 impeachment of President Trump was based on a thin evidentiary record and the narrowest grounds ever used to impeach a President. They emphasized that the House is now taking a different approach, intending to depose witnesses, gather evidence, and establish a strong evidentiary record before presenting Articles of Impeachment. House Republicans have been conducting investigations into allegations of bribery, abuse of power, and obstruction against the president and his family for several months, according to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.
The allegations mainly arise from debunked claims about Biden's actions in Ukraine, which came up during Trump's first impeachment in 2019, before Biden became president. The White House has strongly denied any wrongdoing by Biden.
Sharon Yang, a White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, stated, "Speaker Johnson's blatant hypocrisy exposes the naked partisanship behind this smear campaign against President Biden. Instead of uncovering any evidence of wrongdoing by the President, they have demonstrated their focus on promoting recycled conspiracy theories to appease the most extreme members of their party, rather than addressing the issues that matter to the American people, such as lowering costs, creating jobs, and strengthening our health care."
In contrast, Johnson has described the case as compelling.
During a podcast he co-hosted with his wife in August, Johnson expressed that the evidence and allegations against President Biden are the most severe in the country's history, surpassing even the Watergate scandal. He also stated his intention to potentially hold a vote in the House this week to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry.
Even experts on impeachment, including those cited by Johnson during Trump's impeachment, suggest weakness in the case against Biden. For instance, conservative law professor Jonathan Turley, who testified for Republicans that Trump's impeachment was unwarranted, stated in a radio interview that the evidence against Biden did not yet meet the standard for impeachment, though it did warrant opening an inquiry.
Five legal experts interviewed by CNN described Johnson's endorsement of impeachment as a political tool, with some stating that the case for impeaching Biden lacked legal justification.
"Politicians in this situation consistently leverage impeachment for political gain, and they openly acknowledge their willingness to deploy it against their adversaries, even though they previously opposed its use against their own allies," explained Michael Zeldin, a CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, during a telephone interview.
According to Elie Honig, a former state and federal prosecutor and senior CNN legal analyst, the 2019 inquiry into Trump had clear evidence of wrongdoing, while Republicans have failed to produce evidence to support their allegations, instead relying on disjointed theories based on scraps of evidence that do not directly implicate the president.
Zeldin stated that previous impeachments were related to actions taken by the office holder while in office. In the case of Biden, there is no indication that he has done anything to warrant impeachment. He also pointed out that the focus on a period of time prior to Biden's presidency does not seem to provide a legal basis for impeachment.
Some legal experts have denounced the use of impeachment proceedings for purely political purposes, stating that it goes against the intentions of the Founding Fathers. As Johnson pointed out four years ago, there were concerns about the irreparable harm it could cause to the country.
