Trump says his own impeachment led to push for Biden’s

Former President Trump suggested in a new interview that if Democrats had not impeached him during his time in office then House Republicans may not have launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

“I think had they not done it to me … perhaps you wouldn’t have it being done to them. And this is going to happen with indictments, too,” Trump told Megyn Kelly on her SiriusXM show.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) directed House committees this week to open a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden.

McCarthy’s formal endorsement of impeachment came after he said for weeks that he believed the House probes would eventually develop into an impeachment inquiry. He had faced growing pressure from conservative members of the House to move forward with an inquiry.

In the months that the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has been investigating the Biden family business dealings, it has not found that the president directly financially benefited from his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings or proved that he made any policy decisions because of them.

Trump told Kelly that it is ultimately up to House members if they want to pursue impeachment proceedings against Biden, but the former president has not been shy about making his feelings on the matter known.

The former president wrote in a late August post on Truth Social that Republicans should impeach Biden, or they would “fade into OBLIVION.”

Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, was impeached twice during his four years in office. 

The first time, in 2020, was over his attempts to pressure Ukrainian leadership to investigate the Biden family as his administration withheld military aid.

The second time came in 2021, in the days after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, as Trump supporters stormed the complex to try to halt the certification of the 2020 election results. Trump had for weeks claimed the election was stolen and had urged his supporters to protest at the Capitol.

Trump has also been indicted four times this year, twice on federal charges. He told Kelly that his own criminal indictments have potentially changed the dynamics around whether the Justice Department should pursue investigations into political opponents.

“As time goes by, you’re going to see republicans when they’re in power doing it,” Trump said.

“I would think about it differently. Now, you’d certainly have to think about it differently. It doesn’t mean I’d do it,” he added.