SUBPOENA SEASON — The latest subpoena in the Biden impeachment inquiry was announced by House Judiciary Chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) just a few hours ago: Lesley Wolf, the assistant U.S. attorney overseeing the Hunter Biden investigation. The next few weeks are vital to House Republicans’ so far stalled efforts to impeach President Joe Biden and the Wolf subpoena signals the next step in a month that could define where the impeachment is headed. Republicans claim the president used his position to help his family’s business dealings, but so far have failed to provide enough proof to unite the whole conference behind an impeachment vote — leaving the House GOP divided ahead of a busy month. Impeachment is at the top of the list for conservative hardliners, some of whom criticized former Speaker Kevin McCarthy for not moving the case fast enough. But centrist Republicans, many of whom represent districts carried by Biden, aren’t on board just yet, citing a lack of evidence in the case. It’s a divide that could be costly for the GOP conference, who can only afford to lose a few votes in the narrow Republican majority. The effort also puts the spotlight on newly installed Speaker Mike Johnson. Conservative supporters view him as a partner in the cause — but a failed impeachment inquiry could be an embarrassing opening act of Johnson’s speakership. To get a better understanding of what lies ahead in the Republican effort to impeach the president, Nightly spoke with Jordain Carney, a reporter on POLITICO’s Congress team, who has been closely following Republican impeachment efforts in recent months. This interview has been edited. Where does the impeachment effort stand right now? What can we expect when the House gets back to Capitol Hill next week? House Republicans are hitting the final stage of their impeachment inquiry — with lawmakers and aides involved in the effort viewing the next four-to-six weeks as a crucial period. The big deposition they want is Hunter Biden on Dec. 13, but the committee chairs leading the investigation have also subpoenaed James Biden, the president’s brother, a business associate, a former White House counsel and others. In terms of the timeline, they are hoping to wrap up most of their interviews by the end of the year—at least one, right now, will slip until January—and then make a call as soon as next month about whether they pursue articles of impeachment against President Biden and kick things to Judiciary, which will take the lead on any impeachment articles. There’s a planned deposition of Hunter Biden in the coming weeks, but it would appear that there are considerable divisions within the House GOP over how or whether to move forward on an impeachment vote. Can you describe the different camps and what their concerns are? One of the biggest hurdles for Republicans who want to impeach Joe Biden is sort of their perennial problem: They’ve got a thin-margin that requires near unanimity to do anything along party lines and they’ve got a conference that is all over the map. You’ve got a camp of centrists and Biden-district Republicans who have warned leadership that they don’t want to move forward on impeaching Biden unless the investigators uncover a so-called “smoking gun” definitively linking actions taken by Biden as president or vice president to his family’s business deals. That’s a bar that they haven’t yet met, and some GOP lawmakers are skeptical that they are unlikely to meet—ie, in the words of one Republican, there isn’t going to be a video of Biden accepting a briefcase of cash. There’s a broader swath of governing-minded Republicans who believe the investigation has uncovered damaging information, particularly about Hunter Biden, but aren’t yet convinced it meets the bar of impeaching Biden and day-to-day on Capitol Hill this group is focused on their own stuff. Conservative Rep. Ken Buck—a Freedom Caucus member who doesn’t really fit in either of those camps—has been one of the conference’s most outspoken impeachment critics. What role is new Speaker Mike Johnson playing here? Is he a driving force? What do we know about where he stands? Before Johnson became speaker he had pretty strongly hinted that he believed Joe Biden committed impeachable offenses. As we previously reported, in a September speech, Johnson alleged that there’s “mounting evidence … shows that Joseph Biden has engaged in bribery schemes, pay-to-play schemes.” Now that he’s speaker, he’s having to navigate these competing pressure points within the conference. And he has been careful not to promise that the House will vote to impeach Biden. After a recent dust up about a meeting he had with centrists—that sparked public handwringing from his right flank, who worried he was going soft on impeachment—Johnson released a statement reiterating he supports the inquiry. What’s the definition of a successful impeachment inquiry for House Republicans? Is it different for different camps? It’s theoretically possible that they could end the inquiry without ever advancing to articles or even to a vote on the floor. But ending the investigation would be viewed as a setback for not only hardliners but Johnson (who inherited the inquiry when he became speaker). And it would be basically guaranteed to spark fierce backlash from not only the base, Trump supporters and the right flank of the conference who have been pushing for months to impeach Biden and questioned why the investigations weren’t going faster. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at mmccarthy@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Reporter_Mia. Programming note: Nightly will be off for the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, Nov. 23 and Friday, Nov. 24. We’ll be back in your inboxes on Monday, Nov. 27.
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