在周三上午与众议院共和党人的闭门会议中，凯文·麦卡锡议长向大会重申对乔·拜登总统的弹劾调查正在进行中但据会议室里的多位消息人士透露，他暗示这还不是迫在眉睫的。
消息人士称，麦卡锡本周早些时候提出了对总统进行弹劾调查的可能性，他在会议上花时间解释了该调查与弹劾投票的不同，称调查是一次升级的正式调查，将为共和党人提供更多工具来审查总统及其家人。
这是演讲者在这个问题上的最大限度，但仍然非常模糊。
就像最近和上个月一样麦卡锡暗示，他认为弹劾相关程序没有价值，因为“我们已经在进行调查。”
去年秋天，在赢得议长职位之前，他说弹劾在“用于政治目的”时不受欢迎，“如果有人在那种情况下挺身而出，你必须这样做，但我认为这个国家希望愈合……开始看到实际运作的系统。”
然而，在周一接受《福克斯新闻频道》采访时，McCarthy提到了两名美国国税局(Internal Revenue Service)举报者随后的证词，以及一份FBI报告，其中载有匿名消息来源提供的未经核实的腐败指控。“我们只是跟随信息带我们去的地方。...这正在上升到弹劾调查的水平，这为国会提供了最强大的权力，以获得所需的其余知识和信息，”他说，并指控总统利用政府“造福于他的家人”。
白宫谴责共和党领导的调查是出于政治动机和毫无根据的。
2023年7月25日，在华盛顿国会大厦，众议院议长凯文·麦卡锡在他的办公室外与记者谈论对总统乔·拜登进行弹劾调查的呼吁。
J.斯科特·阿普尔怀特/美联社
白宫发言人伊恩·萨姆斯(Ian Sams)表示:“这不是关注美国人希望我们解决的真正问题，如继续降低通胀或创造就业机会，而是(众议院共和党)想要优先考虑的问题。”发微博这周。“不管真相如何，他们追逐(拜登)的渴望似乎是无止境的。”
麦卡锡没有表明他发起弹劾调查的门槛是什么，他也没有给出任何可能发生的时间表。
作为议长，他拥有五个席位的多数，其中任何一个成员都可以强行投票罢免他。麦卡锡还与他的政党的不同派别打交道:既有推动他推进拜登调查的强硬派成员，也有更谨慎的温和派成员，他们不想在没有具体证据的情况下匆忙进入一个敏感和潜在的爆炸性程序。
消息人士告诉ABC新闻，共和党人已经意识到他们有很多正在进行的众议院调查，时间不多了-距离下次选举还有一年多一点的时间。
一些议员私下呼吁麦卡锡将重点放在对拜登的弹劾上，而不是其他任何政府官员。
众议院多数党领袖史蒂夫·斯卡利斯(Steve Scalise)周三表示，“我们仍需要了解一些本届政府一直阻挠的信息。”。“调查让我们更有能力找出事实，让美国人民了解这些事实。”
McCarthy tells Republicans that Biden impeachment probe is on the table, at some point: Sources
In a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday morning, Speaker Kevin McCarthy reiterated to his conference thatan impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is on the tablebut suggested it is not yet imminent, according to multiple sources in the room.
McCarthy, who earlier this week floated the possibility of an impeachment probe of the president, took time at the conference meeting to explain how that inquiry would differ from an impeachment vote, describing the investigation as an escalated formal probe that would give Republicans more tools to examine the president and his family, sources said.
This is the furthest the speaker has gone on this issue, but it is still extremely vague.
As recentlyas last month, McCarthy suggested he didn't see value in impeachment-related proceedings because "we're already having investigations."
Last fall, before winning the speakership, he said impeachments are unpopular when “used for political purposes” and “if anyone ever rises to that occasion, you have to, but I think the country wants to heal and … start to see the system that actually works.”
In an interview on Fox News on Monday, however, McCarthy pointed to subsequent testimony from two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers as well as an FBI report containing unverified corruption claims from an anonymous source. "We've only followed where the information has taken us. ... This is rising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed," he said, charging the president with using the government to "benefit his family."
The White House has denounced Republican-led probes as politically motivated and baseless.
"Instead of focusing on the real issues Americans want us to address like continuing to lower inflation or create jobs, this is what [the House GOP] wants to prioritize," White House spokesperson Ian Samstweetedthis week. "Their eagerness to go after [Biden] regardless of the truth is seemingly bottomless."
McCarthy has not indicated what his threshold would be for launching an impeachment inquiry and he has not given any timeline for when it could happen.
As speaker, he presides over a five-seat majority in which in any single member can force a vote to oust him. McCarthy also deals with different wings of his party: both the hard-line members pushing him forward on Biden investigations and the more cautious moderates who don't want to rush into a sensitive and potentially explosive proceeding without concrete evidence.
Sources told ABC News that Republicans have realized they have a lot of ongoing House investigations and not a lot of time -- with the next elections now slightly more than a year away.
Some members have privately called on McCarthy to focus on an impeachment of Biden over any other administration official.
“There are still some things we need to get information on that this administration has been stonewalling on," House Majority Leader Steve Scalise maintained on Wednesday. "An inquiry gives us more ability to find out the facts, to get those facts out to the American people."
