Republican Congress members are in the process of trying to remove Former President Donald Trump’s impeachment charges, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is at the center of it.
The Republican Speaker from California sent Trump off when he said in a CNBC interview that he “didn’t know” if Trump was the “strongest” 2024 presidential nominee. According to Politico, Trump’s staff was expecting an endorsement post-interview to make up for it.
When the endorsement was not made, potentially due to McCarthy’s balancing act to stay in the House Republicans’ good graces, he made a promise to Trump. Politico reports the speaker claimed he would expunge Trump’s impeachment in a vote before the August recess.
Since the initial promise, the speaker has already pushed back on his first timeline process, telling Trump’s team the vote will happen in September.
Publicly, McCarthy has denied making any such promises, claiming rather that he only indicated there would be a discussion on the matter.
When this promise came to light, Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN she thinks McCarthy is “playing politics” as it’s “not even clear if he constitutionally can expunge those things.” She went so far as to claim that Trump is still acting as a “puppeteer” and it looks “pathetic.”
Meanwhile, Representative Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) introduced two resolutions aimed to expunge Trump's impeachments from 2019 and 2021. Both representatives claim the impeachments were a politically motivated sham.
It seems unlikely that the expungement would pass, as many Republicans sit in districts where they need to hold onto their political neutrality for the next election cycle. According to Politico, roughly a half-dozen swing district Republicans expressed they were skeptical or even opposed to voting on Trump’s impeachments.
“The problem is: If you have an expungement, and it goes to the floor and fails — which it probably will — then the media will treat it like it’s a third impeachment, and it will show disunity among Republican ranks,” one senior GOP member told Politico. “It’s a huge strategic risk.”
Rep. Green has continued to push this issue around Congress, but it’s unlikely that her voice would carry enough weight, especially after her removal from the Freedom Caucus. The Freedom Caucus is a group of far-right House conservatives who often closely align with one another. Pew Research Center reports 22% of the GOP House is in this invitation-only group.
This whole process has been mostly drowned out by the most recent Trump indictment regarding the January 6 insurrection. As Trump faces three indictments and one more ongoing investigation, audiences' attention is turned away from expungement votes right now.
Most of these actions and discussions took place in June and July, and now Congress is in its August recess. With only 12 days available for such a vote in September, McCarthy may push back his timeline promises once again. There are several other controversial and necessary votes ahead, so this will likely be put on the back burner. We’ll have to watch and see if this promise comes back to life when the House reconvenes this fall.
Claire Schiopota is a senior studying journalism. Please note that the opinions expressed in this column do not reflect those of The Post. Want Claire to cover a certain topic or talk about her column? Email her at cs123719@ohio.edu or tweet her @CSchiopota.
