McCarthy backs effort to expunge Trump impeachments

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is throwing his weight behind the conservative effort to expunge the two impeachments of former President Trump, saying Trump’s behavior didn’t rise to a level that merited either punishment, and he would like to eradicate both votes from history. 

Leaving the Capitol on Friday ahead of a long holiday recess, the Speaker said he supports erasing the pair of impeachments because, he argued, one “was not based on true facts” and the other was “on the basis of no due process.”

“I think it is appropriate, just as I thought before, that you should expunge it because it never should have gone through,” McCarthy told reporters outside his office. He later clarified he supports expunging both Trump impeachments, but he emphasized such resolutions must first go through the committee process.

The Speaker’s endorsement of the expungement push highlights both the tenuous grip McCarthy has on his conference, where conservatives are holding his feet to the fire on numerous policy issues, and the powerful influence Trump retains over the Republican Party more than two years after leaving office. 

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Behind then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), House Democrats successfully impeached Trump twice: The first vote, in late 2019, found that Trump abused his power when he threatened to withhold U.S. military aid to Ukraine unless leaders in Kyiv launched an investigation of his political rivals. The second, in early 2021, found Trump responsible for “incitement of insurrection” for his role in encouraging the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In the House, the first impeachment passed without any Republican support. The second was different, and 10 Republicans crossed the aisle to impeach Trump for the Capitol rampage. In both cases, Trump’s Republican allies in the Senate rallied to prevent a conviction.

Just two of the 10 Republicans who supported the second impeachment still serve in the House: Reps. Dan Newhouse (Wash.) and David Valadao (Calif.).

McCarthy’s position on the Jan. 6 attack has shifted over time. 

Immediately following the Capitol rampage, McCarthy went to the floor and said Trump bore “responsibility” for the violence, which was carried out by Trump supporters trying to block the certification of his 2020 election defeat. 

When it became clear the GOP was sticking behind Trump, McCarthy quickly reversed course, visiting Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida a few weeks later. He would go on to say Trump did not “provoke” the riot, and he then orchestrated the expulsion of then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from GOP leadership for her refusal to indulge Trump’s lies about his election defeat.

Asked about potentially expunging the punishments in January, the newly-elected Speaker said he would “look at it.”

House GOP Conference Chairwoman Rep. Elise Stefanik (N.Y.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) launched an effort to expunge Trump’s impeachments on Thursday, unveiling two resolutions that would discard the disciplines. Greene is the sponsor of the measure targeting Trump’s first impeachment, and Stefanik’s name is on the second one.

The practical implications of the resolutions are dubious because they can do nothing to revisit the impeachment votes or eradicate the public’s memory of them. Still, the bills are designed to do both, claiming the expungement will reset the historical record “as if such Articles had never passed.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) speaks during a press conference held by the Republican Study Committee announcing their Fiscal Year 2024 Budget at the Capitol on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.

Earlier this week, before the measures were introduced, Greene said she is hoping to see a vote on the floor for the resolutions “soon.”

The push to expunge Trump’s impeachment is not new on Capitol Hill: In the last Congress, then-Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla), who now serves in the Senate, introduced resolutions to expunge both of the former president’s impeachments. They did not, however, advance in the Democratic-controlled House.

Democrats wasted no time this week attacking the Republicans supporting expungement, accusing them of carrying water for a twice-disgraced former president solely because he remains so powerful among GOP voters. 

“It’s a continuation of Republicans acting as Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded lawyers,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who was a lead attorney for the Democrats during the first impeachment.

“It’s telling who’s introducing them,” he added. “And it’s essentially whoever’s trying to curry the most favor with Trump.”