House

House Democrat says Biden impeachment inquiry ‘reflection’ of ‘extremism’ within GOP

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, D-Colo., speaks about the recently-signed Inflation Reduction Act during a news conference at the National Center for Atmospheric Research Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2022, in Boulder, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) said in a Sunday interview that the House Republicans’ move to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden only reflects the growing extremism that has begun to take over the party.

In an interview on “Inside with Jen Psaki,” Neguse said while a new poll showing 70 percent of Republicans support the inquiry does concern him, he thinks eventually the base might come to see this as an overreach of their power and something driven by politics.  

“Certainly, that concerns me,” Neguse said of the poll, “but I would say it’s more a reflection of the extremism that has metastasized within the Republican Party.”

“And most of the empirical data that I’ve seen suggests that independent voters do not, at the end of the day, or rather are not, tuning into this farce of a process that Republicans have initiated against President Biden,” he added.

This past week, House Republicans voted to formalize the impeachment inquiry into Biden. Leadership and moderate Republicans have framed this move as essential in order to put the House GOP in the best position ahead of possible legal challenges to their inquiry.

Democrats, however, have largely criticized their counterparts for opening an impeachment inquiry without having any evidence that points to high crimes or misdemeanors.

Neguse said he’s confident the American people will come to see Democrats as prioritizing the interests of the people.

“My sense is that most Americans care about kitchen table issues — economic growth, rising costs, building safer communities — all of which House Democrats have been singularly focused on with, of course, the leadership of President Biden,” he said.

“So, no, I think as this process unfolds, you will find that more and more Americans will register their objections to it because they recognize what you stated at the outset, which is that Republicans have conceded, they are doing this for political purposes,” he said. “They’re unabashed about the fact that they are doing this as a political exercise to exact retribution against … President Biden, on behalf of President Trump, and for no other reason. I think the American people get it.”