Nobody expected McCarthy to do this.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy ignited a social media storm on Thursday when he challenged a reporter’s claim that he initiated an impeachment inquiry “without substantiated evidence.”
On Thursday, GOP strategist Arthur Schwartz shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), “AP’s reporting suggested that McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry lacked evidential support.” He then shared a video of McCarthy compelling an Associated Press journalist, Farnoush Amiri, to acknowledge the existence of substantial evidence backing the impeachment inquiry.
In the video, Farnoush Amiri, an Associated Press reporter, questioned McCarthy regarding fellow Republicans who argued that the ongoing investigation into President Biden had not yet revealed grounds for impeachment.
In transcript provided by Fox, Amiri asked, “Is that an assessment you share?”
McCarthy then began unloading on Amiri like never before and asked, “You know, an impeachment inquiry is not an impeachment. What an impeachment inquiry is to do is to get answers to questions. Are you concerned about all the stuff that was recently learned?”
McCarthy proceeded to enumerate a series of instances that numerous individuals have interpreted as potential indicators of misconduct by the president.
McCarthy asked, “Do you believe the president lied to the American public when he said he’d never talked to his son about his business dealings? Yes or no?”
“I can’t answer that,” Amiri shot back.
“Do you believe when they said the president went on conference calls? Do you believe that happened?” McCarthy responded.
“That’s what the testimony says,” Amiri argued.
“Do you believe the president went to Cafe Milano and had dinner with the clients of Hunter Biden, who believes he got those clients because he was selling the brand?” he then said.
“That’s what the testimony said,” Amiri was forced to confess.
“Do you believe Hunter, when you saw the video of him driving the Porsche, that he got $143,000 to buy that Porsche the next day? Do you believe that $3 million from the Russian oligarch that was transferred to the shell companies that the Bidens controlled after the dinner from Cafe Milano took place?” McCarthy asked.
Following his list of examples, McCarthy posed the question once more to Amiri, inquiring if she believed the president had been dishonest. In response, she queried, “However, is lying considered an impeachable offense?”
McCarthy then said, “All I’m saying is I would like to know the answer to these questions. The American public would like to know.”
The video quickly gained traction among conservatives on social media, who criticized the prevailing narrative on the left, which often asserts the absence of evidence regarding wrongdoing linked to President Biden and his family.
WATCH:
AP reported that McCarthy's impeachment inquiry was launched "without evidence.” Here’s McCarthy forcing an AP reporter to admit that there was lots of evidence to support an impeachment inquiry. pic.twitter.com/lgzU1BNNlE
— Arthur Schwartz (@ArthurSchwartz) September 14, 2023