The
White House plans to send House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) a letter as soon as Friday daring her to hold an impeachment vote and informing her that
President Trump will not comply with any requests from the impeachment probe unless a formal vote is held, according to an Axios report confirmed by Fox News.Pelosi announced last week that the House would launch a formal impeachment inquiry, but so far has not held a vote. House Democrats' handling of the probe prompted a letter from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) on Thursday, in which McCarthy challenged Pelosi to come up with “transparent and equitable rules and procedures . . . to govern the inquiry, as is customary,” or else halt the proceedings. McCarthy explicitly mentioned a formal House vote in a series of questions stipulated in the letter.The letter drew a response from the speaker, who stated on
Twitter “The fact that the [House Republicans’] loyalty is to Trump and not to the Constitution is not going to slow down or impair our ability to keep the republic of our founders envisioned.”After news of the White House’s letter was reported Thursday, a senior
Democratic aide told
Fox News “As we continue to follow the facts, it would behoove the president to come up with something more persuasive than Kevin McCarthy’s pathetic and bogus process arguments.Trump suggested that
China should look into corruption allegations surrounding Joe and Hunter Biden during an impromptu press conference on the White House lawn Thursday morning.“Given that the president just this morning on national television urged yet another foreign government to meddle in our upcoming 2020
elections, we would think the White House would want to mount a rigorous defense of the president’s clear betrayal of his oath of office.”