Top Republican hints at an off-ramp from impeaching Biden

WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, one of the leaders of the Republican impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, is increasingly suggesting a potential off-ramp from pursuing articles of impeachment.

As GOP leaders struggle to convince their members that Biden should be impeached, Comer, R-Ky., is telling supporters it may be futile because Democrats would thwart the effort anyway.

Some Republicans say they haven’t seen enough evidence to impeach the president. But in a fundraising email earlier this week, Comer blamed “deranged Democrats” in the Senate signaling they'll dismiss the House impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as evidence that they would also reject an impeachment of Biden.

In the same email, Comer presented a potential new outcome for his inquiry that he has also floated to reporters: Rather than push for a Senate trial, House Republicans could send criminal referrals to the Justice Department so that a future Donald Trump administration can prosecute if Republicans win back the White House in November.

“It’s clear that Democrats will choose their party over their country and the truth at every turn. They should be ashamed of themselves. That’s why I am preparing criminal referrals as the culmination of my investigation,” Comer wrote in the email. “When President Trump returns to the White House, it’s critical the new leadership at the DOJ have everything they need to prosecute the Biden Crime Family and deliver swift justice.”

Criminal referrals are nonbinding recommendations from Congress to the Justice Department, which has the discretion to decide whether to act.

With the ultra-slim GOP majority in the House — which will drop to a one-vote margin