Biden impeachment backlash builds within House GOP

• 🔎 Watch hardliners — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) or Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) — as most likely to pull the trigger, sources tell Axios.
• Top House Republicans were prepared to let the Biden impeachment inquiry end with the report that came out last week.

Zoom in: "I tell you what I'm afraid of ... they're going to say, we don't have time to do it," Biggs said last week on Steve Bannon's "War Room" podcast.

• With Congress stuck in D.C. next month to hammer out a short-term funding deal, there's plenty of time for an enterprising Republican to force the issue.

Between the lines: Just last month, GOP leaders failed to stop Luna from forcing a vote on fining Attorney General Merrick Garland. The Garland vote failed on the House floor.

• Expect the same from an impeachment vote, Republicans overwhelmingly tell Axios.

The bottom line: 11 House Republicans are defending "toss-up" seats in the Cook Political Report rankings. Another eight have "lean Republican" seats.

• The "only thing we should be focused on is the issues that people talk about around their dinner table and keep them up at night," one battleground House Republican told Axios.
• "That's not a Biden impeachment."