House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to call for a vote to oust House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if she makes an effort to impeach President Trump to block him from nominating a Supreme Court justice.
“I will make you this one promise, listening to the speaker on television this weekend, if she tries to move for an impeachment based upon the president following the Constitution, I think there will be a move on the floor to no longer, or the question of her being speaker,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.
“She may think she has a quiver — we do too,” he said.
In an appearance on ABC News Sunday, Pelosi refused to rule out trying to impeach Trump or Attorney General William Barr in an effort to stop the nominating process for the president’s Supreme Court pick in Congress.
“Well, we have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now, but the fact is we have a big challenge in our country,” the California Democrat said.
Trump plans to announce his selection to fill the seat vacated by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death last Friday, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared he would hold a vote before the Nov. 3 election.
Democrats have blasted the move to fill the seat during an election year and have called for whoever is elected president in November to make the selection.
They also point to McConnell’s refusal to call for a vote in 2016 on Merrick Garland, then-President Barack Obama’s nominee to fill the seat after Justice Antonin Scalia’s death.