A new report suggests that Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy (R-California) promised Donald Trump that he would hold a vote on the House floor to expunge the former president’s two impeachments — an action he cannot legally take as it is not included in the U.S. Constitution.
Politico reported on the promise, citing a source with knowledge of the situation. McCarthy, who has stated that he supports pursuing an expungement of Trump’s impeachments, has claimed that the reporting is inaccurate and mischaracterizes his statements to Trump.
According to the source, Trump, angry with McCarthy after the House speaker said he might not be the strongest GOP option to run for the White House next year, demanded that his staff secure an endorsement from McCarthy right away. McCarthy, who has said he will be neutral during the primary process, sought to appease Trump, who could use his substantial influence in the Republican Party to call for a vote to oust him from the speakership if he becomes unhappy with McCarthy’s job performance.
Per Politico’s report, McCarthy’s pledge to Trump was “made reflexively to save his own skin.” McCarthy has denied making the promise.
“There’s no deal…I support expungement, but there’s no deal out there,” McCarthy told NBC News.
According to a Capitol aide, McCarthy didn’t promise Trump he would pursue a vote, but said he would discuss the matter with the GOP caucus.
Expungement isn’t something the House can legally do — the Constitution lays out the process for how a president can be impeached, but doesn’t include a process for how to remove an impeachment from the record or indicate whether such a move is possible. The House could pass a formal resolution saying Trump was never impeached, but that wouldn’t have any legal consequences.
Even so, the idea of pursuing an expungement of Trump’s two impeachments over the course of his presidency — one over his trying to coerce Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for political dirt on Joe Biden in exchange for U.S. support for defense against Russian border encroachments, the other for his role in instigating the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 — is causing friction among moderates and swing district Republicans in the House, who believe that the process could hurt their chances in the election cycle if it’s even attempted.
Several of these Republicans expressed doubts about expunging Trump’s impeachments directly to Politico.
“It doesn’t make sense to me, because if you’re found not guilty, what do we expunge?” asked Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska). “I think it’s silly. We should be moving forward, not backwards.”
“What is there to expunge? He was acquitted at [the U.S. Senate] trial,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York). “I don’t really see the purpose of it.”
Although most of the GOP caucus would likely support pursuing the matter, the moderate or swing district Republicans (who number around a half dozen lawmakers, according to Politico) would make it difficult for McCarthy to hold a vote on the issue, as the House is divided among Republicans and Democrats (who would likely oppose the measure) by a mere five seats.
Last month, Noah Bookbinder, president of the nonprofit watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said that holding a vote on expungement would be frivolous.
“The House can hold a vote, sure, but it doesn’t change the fact that Trump was impeached, twice, and the Senate held trials,” Bookbinder said.
He added:
The only purpose of such a vote is to cover for Trump and to downplay the severity of an effort to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn a free and fair election, resulting in violent insurrection. Anyone who votes to ‘expunge the impeachment’ is voting to endorse an attack on democracy and to disempower American voters.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy