Sen. Tommy Tuberville nudges House GOP to not ‘waste time’ on Biden impeachment
Sen. Tommy Tuberville expressed skepticism over the impeachment inquiry against President Biden, though he said he would like to know the “truth” about Biden’s financial dealings and urged the House GOP to not “waste time.”
“I’m not for impeachment unless it is ironclad,” Tuberville (R-Ala.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press NOW” Tuesday.
“As I said about President [Donald] Trump, if you’re gonna come after a former president or president, let’s not waste time. Let’s know the truth. Let’s be able to bring it out. Let the American people know.”
Earlier in the day, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced that he ordered an impeachment inquiry into the president over potential links to his family’s business dealings.
Biden and the White House vehemently insist that he was not involved in those overseas machinations.
McCarthy initially said he wouldn’t bring forward a probe unless he had a formal House vote, but reversed himself, citing precedent from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“You don’t bring a vote to the floor unless you are pretty sure that you can get the amount of votes that you need,” Tuberville argued.
“I know that wouldn’t make it to anywhere over here in the Senate. That probably wouldn’t even — wouldn’t even let it make it to the floor. But again, this is all up to the House. We got enough problems going on right now.”
Impeachment starts in the House and ends with a trial in the Senate. In this case, the House is holding an impeachment inquiry — a fact-gathering operation — and not formally impeaching Biden yet.
A handful of moderate Republicans in the lower chamber were squeamish about backing the inquiry, and that sentiment is very common in the upper chamber as well.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) demurred on the matter Tuesday.
“I don’t have any advice to give to the House. They’ve got a totally different set of challenges,” he said. “So I think the best advice for the Senate is to do our job and we’ll see how this plays out.”
Tuberville has been in the hot seat since February over his protracted hold on military promotions, which has stymied the advancement of nearly 300 service leaders.
The Alabama senator’s blockade comes in protest of a Pentagon policy of footing the bill for service members to travel to obtain an abortion.
He has faced bipartisan backlash over the gambit. At the end of the month, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley is set to vacate his post, further elevating the stakes of the holdup.
Biden has nominated Air Force chief of staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown to fill the role. Should he be confirmed, Brown would be the second black man in the post, following the late Gen. Colin Powell.
