The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: troy nehls
Troy Nehls

House Republican Admits Biden Impeachment Is 'Ammo For Trump'

Most House Republicans keep pretending that there’s some noble basis for their drive to impeach President Joe Biden. He’s corrupt, they say, even as their bombshell evidence of that is that Biden’s son repaid him for a car loan. They’re just following the evidence, they say, glossing over the lack of evidence to follow. Not Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX). He’s being honest.

Nehls told USA Todaythat his reason for impeachment would be to give Trump “a little bit of ammo to fire back” at Biden in the 2024 presidential race. The ammo being “So what if I was impeached twice and face 91 felony counts. You were impeached, too!” It doesn’t get any more partisan than that.

After all of the protestations to the contrary from the 18 House Republicans in Biden districts pontificating, as Rep. Marc Molinaro (D-NY) recently did, about the House’s “fundamental responsibility of provide accountability to the executive branch” and tut-tutting about being “troubled by some of the behavior” from the White House, Nehls is telling the truth.

Republicans were gearing up to impeach Biden before they ever took control of the House, and they started hearings with that end in mind as soon as they could get their act together to do so. You can bet that if they’d found any real evidence of wrongdoing by the president, he’d have been impeached immediately.

Instead, they’re heading into a vote for a formal impeachment inquiry armed with some loan repayments from Joe Biden’s son and his brother, repayments made when he wasn’t even in office. In the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing, they may try to impeach him for obstructing their investigation—presumably by not coughing up the nonexistent evidence they imagine he’s hiding.

And why are they so determined to get this done? It’s like Nehls said: to give Trump “a little bit of ammo to fire back.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Rep. Troy Nehls speaks at a news conference with House Republicans on July 27, 2021.

House Republicans Who Quit Are Still Whining About Jan. 6 Panel

Reprinted with permission from American Independent

House Republicans who were slated to be on the select committee to probe the January 6 insurrection held a news conference Tuesday morning to complain they are being shut out from the probe.

But the fact that there are no allies of former President Donald Trump on the committee was a choice made by the GOP. It was House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who decided to pull all of his members from the investigative panel.

"It's with great disappointment today that I don't get to question my friend Harry Dunn," Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), one of McCarthy's picks for the committee, said at the news conference, referring to a law enforcement officer who is testifying about the Jan. 6 events at the committee's first hearing on Tuesday. "We don't get to ask the questions that will lead to why there was not a better security posture here on the Capitol complex."

Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), another Republican McCarthy appointed to the committee before he chose to pull his members out in protest, similarly said he is upset that he cannot ask questions on Tuesday. He said he wanted to understand why police were not prepared for the siege from the pro-Trump mob.

But Davis and Nehls did have the chance to ask questions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not block those men from being seated on the committee; she only refused to seat two of McCarthy's picks, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jim Banks (R-IN), citing "an insistence on the truth" and "concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members."

But there appeared to be other conflicts as well.

Jordan reportedly spoke to Trump during the attack, making him a potential material witness to the event the committee is probing, according to remarks made by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) today.

Banks had released a statement after his selection by McCarthy slamming the probe.

"Make no mistake, Nancy Pelosi created this committee solely to malign conservatives and to justify the Left's authoritarian agenda," Banks wrote in a statement.

Despite the complaints issued at the press conference, some Republicans do get to ask questions at the hearing.

Two GOP lawmakers — Cheney and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) — are both on the committee, after being appointed by Pelosi.

Both have vowed to make sure the investigation is taken seriously and produces a legitimate report while accusing McCarthy of aiming to do the opposite: stonewalling the investigation to protect Trump.

"There are some in my party, including Leader McCarthy, who continue to act as though this is about partisan politics," Cheney said Tuesday morning on ABC News. "I think it's really sad. I think it's a disgrace."

Without McCarthy's picks on the committee, Trump loyalists in the GOP won't have a mouthpiece to continue attacks on the investigation.

"At every step in this process Kevin McCarthy has acted in bad faith, shown loyalty to the person of Donald Trump rather than the United States of America, and told shameful lie after shameful lie," Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) tweetedTuesday after the GOP complaints about being shut out of the committee. "We need to be clear about that. Kevin McCarthy is lying."

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.