House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Sunday said that he's not looking to impeach President Joe Biden if Republicans win the House this fall, but he's not ruling it out if the rule of law determines articles should be filed.
"One thing we learned that the Democrats did is they used impeachment for political reasons," the California Republican, speaking to Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" host Maria Bartiromo in an interview from Warsaw, where he is leading a congressional delegation this weekend.
"We believe in the rule of law," he continued. "We're not going to pick and choose just because somebody has power. We're going to uphold the law. At any time, if someone breaks the law and the ramification becomes impeachment, we would move towards that, but we're not going to use it for political purposes."
Instead, he said a GOP-led House, which he's expected to lead as speaker if his party wins, will focus on other pressing issues, including "securing our border, making us energy independent, bringing these prices down, making our schools and streets safe again, and holding this administration accountable." Americans, he added, have "been through too much with people playing politics with the concept of impeachment, but if it rises to that level, we would have the law determine that."
But even without impeachment proceedings being filed against Biden, like they were brought twice by a Democrat-controlled House against then-President Donald Trump, the president and his administration will still feel the heat if Republicans win control in November, including on his response to Russia's war on Ukraine, McCarthy said
"The way he pulled out of Afghanistan that brought us 13 more Gold Star families, who made those decisions?" he said. "The attorney general is investigating American parents who want to go to school board meetings, the IRS is releasing American taxpayers' tax returns. When we look at where is the origin of COVID, where did that come from? Why don't we know that after the millions of people who have died because of it? These are just a few of the investigations and the accountability that we can hold administration because we would have subpoena power."
Republicans will also work to make the United States energy independent, secure the borders, stop the fentanyl that is coming into the country and killing Americans, make the streets and schools safe, and stop runaway inflation that the "Democrats have brought forth to America that we have not seen in 40 years," said McCarthy.
Meanwhile, the congressman, while on the ground in Poland, said while observing refugees, mostly women and children, the delegation is also seeing the "sheer strength" of the Ukrainian people and their will to survive.
"But the atrocities that are happening now in Russia via [President Vladimir] Putin targeting children, shooting at a train station of innocent individuals and now the atrocities that we're finding as these cities open back up, killings of people with their hands tied, there have to be real ramifications for the actions the Russians have taken here."
Meanwhile, Biden has acted "too slow" to help Ukraine, said McCarthy.
"Had Biden sent weaponry earlier, maybe Putin would not have made the decision to enter Ukraine," he said. "Had Biden said they would sanction before they entered, maybe Putin wouldn't have entered. Now that you have countries willing to provide MiGs to Ukraine…what we need to do is supply Ukraine with the weapons they need to win this war."
Biden's sanctions on Russia still aren't working, he added, as the ruble is back to where it was before.
"The number one thing that works is a country able to defend themselves," he said, adding that the United States should also be supplying Taiwan with weapons so "China does not get the idea to enter."