House GOP leadership insists they can both investigate Biden and govern

By Haley Talbot and Clare Foran, CNN

(CNN) — House Republican leaders are insisting they can pursue investigations targeting the Biden administration and the president while still delivering on their legislative agenda. As a potential impeachment inquiry looms, however, leadership faces major challenges to keep their narrow majority united over contentious policy and oversight issues.

Recent legislative fights have exposed divisions within the House Republican conference and showcased the influence of hardline conservatives who continue to exert pressure on leadership. Top Republicans will be put to the test again this week as the House takes up a series of spending measures.

Facing a juggling act, House GOP leaders argue it won’t be a problem to balance it all.

Asked about the threat of a potential impeachment inquiry as opposed to focusing on other issues, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said, “It’s not in lieu of anything, we can do many things at the same time,” at a news conference Wednesday.

Later, after criticizing immigration policy under the Biden administration, Scalise said, “We’re going to continue to get the facts out. And we can do all of these things at the same time while we’re moving a legislative agenda, including appropriations bills.”

Earlier this week, Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested that House Republicans may be approaching the point where they’d pursue an impeachment investigation into President Joe Biden.

At the same time, Republican leadership is bracing for yet another week where they’ll need to unite a splintered conference – this time on a series of spending bills that will set the tone for a showdown in the fall with the United States Senate over government funding.

One House Republican – Colorado Rep. Ken Buck – said that his party was engaged in “impeachment theater” and accused McCarthy of using a “shiny object” to distract from disagreements over major spending legislation.

“This is impeachment theater. We right now are starting the appropriations process. And there is not consensus on the Republican side about what the numbers should be,” Buck told CNN’s Dana Bash during an interview Wednesday on “Inside Politics.”

He added later, “What (McCarthy is) doing is he’s saying there’s a shiny object over here and we’re really going to focus on that. We just need to get all these things done so we can focus on the shiny object. Most of us are concerned about spending.”

Buck, however, did not dismiss the notion of impeachment, saying, “I think it’s absolutely Congress’s role to look at possible impeachment.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Wednesday that another impeachment proceeding is “not good for the country,” when asked about House Republicans inching towards an impeachment inquiry into Biden.

“I said two years ago, when we had not one but two impeachments, that once we go down this path, it incentives the other side to do the same thing,” McConnell said.

“Impeachment ought to be rare, rather than common,” he said. “And so I’m not surprised that having been treated the way they were, House Republicans last Congress, begin to open up the possibility of doing it again. And I think this is not good for the country, to have repeated impeachment problems.”

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CNN’s Morgan Rimmer and David Wright contributed to this report.