Republicans add new threats to impeach Austin and Garland, along with Biden and Mayorkas

WASHINGTON — Republicans are entering their impeachment era.

The House majority is kicking off the new year by aggressively advancing existing impeachment inquiries into President Joe Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Now, Republican lawmakers are launching new threats to impeach Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Attorney General Merrick Garland, as well.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., has announced articles of impeachment after Austin failed to inform the White House for three days that he had been hospitalized. Rosendale, who is considering a possible Senate bid this year, proclaimed Monday that Austin has “violated his oath of office time and time again, and has jeopardized the lives of the American people.”

The same evening, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., indicated in an interview with Newsmax that Garland could also be subject to impeachment if he doesn't charge Hunter Biden with contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena.

Asked whether failure to charge Hunter Biden, the president’s son, would be grounds for Garland’s impeachment, Comer said, “I think so.”

“We know how he’s treated two Republicans that were held in contempt of Congress,” Comer said. “Now he’s going to have an opportunity to hold the same type of justice with a Democrat that disavowed a lawful subpoena.”

All of the House impeachment talk is overkill for even some Senate Republicans, who say they are focused on more important things, like averting a government shutdown this month, beefing up border security and providing additional aid for Ukraine and Israel.

“We’ve got so many things to do,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., a member of party leadership. “I don’t think impeachment