WTF Just Happened Today

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

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1/ Kevin McCarthy directed three House committees to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden as far-right Republican lawmakers threaten to remove him as speaker. McCarthy said the impeachment inquiry would center on whether Biden benefited from Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and elsewhere despite investigations led by Republicans on the House Judiciary and Oversight committees having not uncovered any direct evidence that Biden personally benefited from his son’s business dealings. Notably, McCarthy did not announce a full House vote to open the inquiry and it’s unclear if he has the 218 votes needed to launch a formal inquiry. Several centrist Republican lawmakers oppose the effort. McCarthy, meanwhile, is trying to secure enough votes from far-right Republicans – who have been pushing for a Biden impeachment – to keep the government funded beyond the Sept. 30 deadline to avoid a shutdown. A single Republican, however, can bring a no-confidence vote to the floor to remove McCarthy as speaker, and less than an hour after the announcement Matt Gaetz accused McCarthy of violating the power-sharing agreement he made with the far-right to be elected speaker in January. Gaetz threatened to bring a motion to vacate against McCarthy if he puts a short-term spending bills on the floor instead of holding votes on balancing the budget and term limits. Marjorie Taylor Greene also said she wouldn’t vote to fund the government unless the House opened a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden. The White House called the impeachment inquiry “extreme politics at its worst.” (Washington Post / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / ABC News / NPR / CNN / CNBC / NBC News / Associated Press / Politico / Punchbowl News / Bloomberg)

• Kevin McCarthy faces a ‘perfect storm’ of demands as a shutdown looms. “With a Sept. 30 deadline, the House speaker confronts right-wing demands to cut spending, limit migration, prop up Trump and impeach Biden — and veiled threats to his gavel.” (NBC News)

2/ A group of Minnesota voters filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump from the 2024 presidential ballot in the state, citing the “insurrection clause” of the 14th Amendment. It’s the second lawsuit in the past month to try to keep Trump off the ballot in next year’s presidential race under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. (