McCarthy Challenges Pelosi To Meet Her Own Standard For Impeachment

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy challenged House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Tuesday to meet the standard for impeachment that she nearly nine months ago.

“Impeachment is so divisive to the country that unless there’s something so compelling and overwhelming and bipartisan, I don’t think we should go down that path, because it divides the country,” Pelosi told The Washington Post in March.

McCarthy dared Pelosi in a press conference Tuesday to explain how the current impeachment inquiry, which had no Republicans voting in favor and two Democrats voting in opposition, meets Pelosi’s standards.

“What she said I think everybody agrees with,” McCarthy said, asserting that the impeachment inquiry has “failed each one” of Pelosi’s standards. “There is nothing compelling, there is overwhelming and the only bipartisan vote we have had in this House is not to move forward with impeachment inquiry. That has not stopped them,” he said.

“We are better than this and I hope the speaker meant the words she said on March 11th,” McCarthy added later in his statement.

“If she set a criteria to have to march forward, she needs to answer the question: What is compelling, what is overwhelming and where is the bipartisanship? Because that would put an end to this nightmare, where we could work forward to make America stronger.”

Pelosi’s office didn’t return a request for comment.

Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released dueling reports Tuesday on the impeachment inquiry, which will now move to the House Judiciary Committee following a party line vote in the intelligence committee.