WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday urged grassroots Republicans to oppose a resolution proposed by Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., that would force a snap vote to impeach President Joe Biden, arguing that such an issue should go through the committee process, three GOP sources who heard the comments confirmed to NBC News.
McCarthy, R-Calif., made his remarks during a closed meeting of House Republicans as lawmakers debated whether to move forward now with an impeachment vote as several committees headed by the GOP are still investigating the president and his family. members.
McCarthy “thinks we should go through the committee. When we treat it frivolously, it makes Biden stronger and weakens us,” said a GOP lawmaker who was in the room.
When the Democrats controlled the chamber, McCarthy had argued vehemently that the other party was rushing to impeach then-President Donald Trump not once, but twice. Now the speaker is warning that Republicans could fall into the same trap by immediately voting to impeach Biden.
“The speaker’s message was that we need to follow the due order and let the committees do their job,” a second source said.
Later Wednesday afternoon, McCarthy confirmed to reporters that he opposes an impeachment vote at this time, arguing that pursuing it “prematurely” “undermines” GOP efforts to investigate Biden.
“It’s very serious,” the speaker said of the impeachment. “That’s why I don’t want to do anything that could harm the investigation that we are carrying out at the moment.”
The House Oversight and Judiciary Committees have investigations focused on Biden.
Boebert did not attend the weekly House GOP Conference meeting, lawmakers said, so she did not hear McCarthy’s comments directly. A conservative bomb-thrower and fierce critic of McCarthy, Boebert shocked his colleagues by introducing articles on impeachment on Tuesday night as a “preferred” resolution, meaning it must be passed within two legislative days.
“Republicans need to stick together and get this man out of office for his dereliction of duty on the southern border,” she said. tweeted Wednesday.
Some Republicans predicted that the resolution did not have enough GOP votes to pass. Moderate Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said impeachment should go through the committee process and confirmed he would support a Democratic effort to “table” or overturn Boebert’s resolution.
“I think if people see that we’re honest about it and impeachment is a very serious thing, it should go through a committee,” Bacon told reporters. “I feel like it was belittled in the last Congress; we shouldn’t follow the same footprints.”
“I think in the end it’s going to be filed,” he continued. “And I believe in team sports and teamwork, and he’s an individual who I think is undermining the team.”
Boebert’s resolution is part of a larger push by the House GOP majority to retaliate against their political enemies. On Wednesday, the GOP-led House will vote on a resolution by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., to censure former Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the lead prosecutor in the first impeachment of Trump. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., also pledges to introduce other preferred resolutions to impeach Biden and other senior administration officials.
Leaving Wednesday’s meeting, Greene, a McCarthy ally who has feuded with Boebert for months, accused the Colorado Republican of copying his own articles of impeachment against Biden.
“I had already filed impeachment articles on Joe Biden for the border, I asked her to co-sponsor mine – she didn’t,” Greene complained. “She basically copied my articles, then submitted them, then edited them into a preferred resolution.
“So of course I support them because they are identical to mine. They are basically copied,” she said.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com