House votes to refer Biden impeachment resolution to committee

The House voted Thursday to pass a rule sending a resolution offered by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado to committee, effectively pausing a move to bring a privileged motion to the floor that would have forced members to vote on whether to impeach President Joe Biden.

The rule was passed along party lines.

Boebert's resolution had divided House Republicans, with many members expressing frustration with the conservative congresswoman's push to force a vote on the politically contentious issue. Speaker Kevin McCarthy urged his GOP conference to vote against the resolution.

Boebert said said she pushed the vote in order to force her colleagues "to make tough decisions."

"I am a sophomore congresswoman, and I have learned very early that nothing happens in this town without force," Boebert said.

At a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, McCarthy argued that Republicans should let committee investigations play out and warning that jumping to impeachment now could threaten their slim majority, multiple sources in the meeting told CNN.

"I think to prematurely bring something up like that, to have no background in it, it undercuts what we're doing" at the committee level, McCarthy later told reporters.