Worried that they might become even more of a national laughingstock if they go forward with a vote on formalizing an inquiry or actual articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden, House Republicans have set an internal deadline of January to find a “smoking gun” that will actually convince enough “moderates” in their conference to make it happen or they’re going to have to drop the effort, with the latter becoming the increasingly more likely outcome, Politico reports.

“Any kind of an impeachment puts our [members in districts that voted for Biden in the 2020 election] in a really tough spot,” said one member anonymously. “Impeachment hurts us politically – it makes our base feel better.” The frontliners have warned Speaker Mike Johnson that they’re going to need a smoking gun to be moved on the issue, something that same anonymous member straight up said wasn’t happening. “I don’t think we’re going to have a closed-caption video with some Chinese national handing Joe Biden the bank money,” the weasel said, adding the case would ride on a “mountain of circumstantial evidence,” but that some federal prosecutions have been really circumstantial too. Politico should’ve quoted them directly on that gem of an admission.

The clock continues ticking inexorably. “We understand that the further you go toward an election, the more politicized these conversations become. That’s why it’s all the more important for us to begin to take action sooner rather than later,” said Virginia Republican Ben Cline.