Former Houser Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) said he supports the opening of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden but advised Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to “go very slow” in the process.
“Open the inquiry, but go very slow,” Gingrich told NBC News.
“We should open the inquiry, because it allows them to ask a broader range of questions,” Gingrich continued. “But we should move very, very, very slowly beyond that.”
McCarthy said last month that the findings from GOP probes into the Biden family’s foreign business activities “rise to the level of an impeachment inquiry.”
McCarthy has pointed to two IRS whistleblowers who alleged prosecutors slow-walked an investigation into Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s tax crimes, as well as millions of dollars from foreign sources that allegedly moved through shell companies to Biden family members and associates.
Gingrich led the impeachment of then-President Clinton in the late 1990s, which some criticized as an overreaching probe. Republicans would end up losing seats in the 1998 election, spurring Gingrich’s resignation soon after.
Gingrich previously told The Washington Post that an impeachment inquiry into Biden was a “good idea” but that “impeachment itself is a terrible idea,” and he said he had told McCarthy as much.
Gingrich is among several GOP figures who have urged caution on the impeachment inquiry, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) who warned Republicans against falling into the “trap” of impeachment. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) called McCarthy’s remarks “impeachment theater” meant to distract from budget negotiations.