White House calls Marjorie Taylor Greene impeachment discussion a set-up

WASHINGTON — The White House has pushed back on Republican impeachment talks, calling them a “partisan blow” after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., pledged not to vote for government funding without procedure.

“I have already decided that I will not vote to fund the government unless we pass an impeachment inquiry,” Greene said.

At a town hall meeting Thursday night with his constituents and later at a post on XFormerly known as Twitter, Greene said she would not vote on necessary budget bills unless impeachment proceedings for President Joe Biden begin.

Failure to fund the government would result in a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year on September 30, which could lead to layoffs, closure of agencies and jeopardize many essential programs.

The House passed just one of the 12 budget bills needed to fund the government, in less than a month.

The White House on Thursday asked Congress to pass a continuing short-term resolution to fund the government while long-term budget negotiations continue. Even before Greene’s comments, deep divisions remain between parties, with Republicans seeking to implement deep spending cuts that are unlikely to pass through the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Greene also said she wouldn’t vote on the budget measures unless the House ‘funds Biden’s militarization of government’, ends Covid-19 mandates and halts funding for Ukraine. .

White House spokesman Ian Sams forcefully pushed back against Greene in a statement, saying millions of dollars had already been wasted on the “wild goose chase” that is the Biden investigation and his family.

“One of the most powerful members of the House, Marjorie Taylor Greene, has just admitted that the impeachment of Republicans in the House is just a partisan stunt carried out by the most extreme, far-right members” , Sams said.

Republicans have yet to demonstrate any evidence of wrongdoing by Biden when he was vice president and his son Hunter was on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma, or that Biden benefited of the role of his son.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has begun warning his members that failing to fund the government could negatively affect their impeachment inquiry, which he called in a Fox News interview last Sunday “natural next step”.

“If we shut down, the whole government will shut down — investigations and everything,” McCarthy told Fox News on Sunday.

In an interview with Breitbart News on Friday, McCarthy said if the House opened an impeachment inquiry against Biden, there would be a formal vote to do so.

“If we move forward with an impeachment inquiry, it will be by a vote in the People’s House and not by a statement from one person,” McCarthy said.