Speaker Johnson: House to Hold Impeachment Inquiry Vote Soon

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is bringing an official House impeachment inquiry vote by next week, he said in a news conference Tuesday.

"The impeachment inquiry is necessary because as you know, our committees of jurisdiction, Oversight, Judiciary, Ways and Means, Chairman [James] Comer and [Jim] Jordan and [Jason] Smith have done an extraordinary job following the facts on this," he told reporters, without declaring specifically when that vote will come.

Reports have indicated it could come by next week.

Johnson said the authority of an impeachment inquiry is the "heaviest power that the House has" next to "declaration of war."

"The House Democrats cheapened impeachment," Johnson said, pointing to multiple impeachments of former President Donald Trump. "They used it for partisan political purposes. They went after Donald Trump twice. I served on the impeachment defense team twice. We called those sham impeachments, snap impeachments."

Instead, Republicans have moved forward more deliberately, Johnson added.

"What you're seeing right now is exactly the opposite of that," he continued. "You're seeing a very deliberate investigation following, uncovering, and following the facts, following the truth where it leads. That's what the Constitution requires the House to do and the House Republicans have done that very methodically."

Johnson noted Democrats and the Biden White House have been obstruction oversight investigations and Republicans need the leverage of the Constitution to potentially move forward.

"We have come to this sort of inflection point because right now the White House is stonewalling that investigation," Johnson said. "They're refusing to turn over key witnesses to allow them to testify as they've been subpoenaed. They're refusing to turn over thousands of documents for the National Archives.

"The House has no choice if it's going to follow its constitutional responsibility to formally bring an impeachment inquiry on the floor, so that when the subpoenas are challenged in court, we'll be at the apex of our constitutional authority."

The necessitates the former House impeachment inquiry vote to come, he said.

"This vote is not a vote to impeach President Biden," he warned. "This is a vote to continue the inquiry of impeachment and that's a necessary constitutional step."

House GOP moderates know this step is warranted, according to Johnson

"The moderates in our conference understand this is not a political decision, this is a legal decision," he concluded. "It's a constitutional decision and whether someone is for or against impeachment is of no import right now.

"We have to continue our legal responsibility and that is only solely what this vote is about."

A Tuesday morning email from the White House's impeachment war room included 11 comments from GOP lawmakers regarding the House's impeachment probe. But the included statements were extracted from old stories to support Biden's case.

The White House insisted no new evidence of wrongdoing by Biden has emerged, and "their latest false allegations distorting loans and other bank records have been fact-checked and debunked."

Ian Sams, White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, continues to say impeachment talk is being promoted by "extreme House Republicans."

"Marjorie Taylor Greene may be clamoring for the House to proceed to impeachment, but numerous House Republicans have already gone on record that the evidence just doesn't back it up," Sams said.

"Americans already overwhelmingly believe House Republicans are prioritizing the wrong things, and any vote to move ahead with MTG's favorite pastime would reveal that she is truly calling the shots in this extreme House Republican conference."

Newsmax writer Charlie McCarthy contributed to this report.