On Friday, White House Counsel Ed Siskel sent Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson a letter, claiming that the impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden was "over," and telling Johnson, "It's time to move on." Mr. Siskel has evidently not read the Constitution, because the White House has no authority over this process, and to his endless credit, Speaker Johnson wasted no time explaining that in no uncertain terms.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News on Friday that the White House does not get to "call the shots" on when the President Biden impeachment inquiry ends after he received a letter this morning from a White House lawyer arguing that it’s "over."
White House Counsel Ed Siskel, in his message to the Louisiana Republican, said "it’s obviously time to move on, Mr. Speaker."
"This impeachment is over," Siskel declared. "There is too much important work to be done for the American people to continue wasting time on this charade."
But Johnson told Fox News’ Chad Pergram on Capitol Hill Friday that "They don’t call the shots on it" and "we’ll deliberate over that when the investigation is complete."
That's a polite way of telling the Biden administration precisely where they can shove White House Counsel Ed Siskel's letter.
The Constitution unambiguously places all authority over impeachment inquiries and proceedings with one body, the House of Representatives. Article I, Section 2, states in part:
The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.
The sole power of impeachment. The White House has no say in the matter. Speaker Johnson made that very clear in his reply:
"We’re allowing the process to play out as the Constitution anticipates. Our committees of jurisdiction have done their duty," Johnson added. "They’ve done an extraordinary job. They’ve revealed some alarming information."
That last sentence is something of an understatement.
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This little nugget of misunderstanding of the Constitution comes on the heels of a litany of malfeasances by the Biden administration. They have overseen runaway inflation, a ruinous explosion of federal spending, and driving the national debt beyond the point of no return; add this to demoralizing our military, throwing the southern border open to all and sundry, and by the way, credible allegations of influence-peddling going back years - the only curious part of the House impeachment inquiry is that it didn't start much earlier.
Mr. Johnson chose a degree of tact in his response. While that's probably for the best, one could be forgiven for copying a different level of response when considering tact vs. honesty.