House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., expressed support Friday for a symbolic resolution to expunge former President Donald Trump’s two impeachments from the House record.
McCarthy told reporters he would back House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in their effort to expunge both impeachments. However, he said their resolutions would need to go through the committee process first before getting a vote on the floor.
McCarthy’s decision to back the resolution demonstrates that Trump, who was impeached twice in office and indicted twice since departing office, still maintains broad support among House Republicans as he stages a bid for the 2024 presidential nomination.
Why was Trump impeached?
Trump was first impeached in 2019 after encouraging Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up political dirt on then-White House rival Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 presidential campaign — while Trump was withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine as it faced Russia.
He was impeached a second time for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, but McCarthy denied that supporting a resolution to expunge the impeachments was an attempt to gloss over Trump’s role that day.
After both impeachments in the House, Trump was acquitted by the Senate.
McCarthy reminded a group of reporters that he voted against both impeachments of the former president and said the second impeachment had “no due process.”
Can you expunge an impeachment?
The House GOP wants to expunge, or remove, Trump’s two impeachments, but there are questions as to whether that’s possible.
They can’t undo the congressional record of the votes that happened, according to experts, and the House wasn’t the only chamber involved. The Senate, which is still led by Democrats, held the impeachment trials.
Georgetown University Law Professor Jonathan Turley told Reuters the U.S. Constitution contains no provision for expunging impeachments.
“It is not like a constitutional DUI. Once you are impeached, you are impeached,” Turley said to Reuters in an email.
Currying favor with Trump?
Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., who served as lead counsel for the Democrats during Trump’s first impeachment, dismissed the resolutions as an attempt by Republicans to earn the former president’s support.
“It is just a further continuation of the House Republicans acting as Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded lawyers,” Goldman told CBS News.
“It’s telling who is introducing them and it’s essentially whoever is trying to curry the most favor with Donald Trump,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
