Newt Gingrich says it would be a 'terrible idea' to actually impeach Joe Biden — but he supports starting an inquiry

• House Republicans may soon launch an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.
• Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who lead the Clinton impeachment, says he supports an inquiry.

With House Republicans potentially launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is offering his own take on the matter.

Gingrich, a Georgia Republican who led the 1998 impeachment of President Bill Clinton when he was speaker of the House, told the Washington Post that it would be a "good idea to go to the inquiry stage."

But, he added, "impeachment itself is a terrible idea."

"The only short-term consequence of a successful impeachment is [Vice President] Kamala Harris [becoming president], and Kamala would be such a total disaster for the country that Biden's corruption is probably preferable to her incompetence," Gingrich also told the Post.

The Republican-led impeachment of Clinton is widely seen as having politically backfired, leading to Republicans losing some seats in the 1998 midterms and Gingrich resigning as speaker. But Gingrich told the Post that he doesn't worry about the political repercussions of a potential Biden impeachment.

In teasing the potential impeachment, McCarthy has pointed to unsubstantiated claims that an informant made to the FBI of second-hand knowledge that a Ukrainian gas company owner may have paid the Bidens $10 million in bribes.

The Bureau criticized Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa last week after he released a document summarizing the claims, telling Insider in a statement that the release "unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source."