Democrats during President Trump’s term of office twice turned the constitutional impeachment process into a political weapon, attacking him for a telephone call and later what protesters did at the U.S. Capitol.
Both times the majority Democrats in the House voted to impeach him but both times a divided Senate returned acquittals, leaving Nancy Pelosi 0-for-2 in her campaign against the president.
But the process was established and now a second GOP leader has raised the prospect of turning the weapon against Joe Biden, if Republicans move into the majority in the U.S. House during the 2022 elections as expected.
Just the News reported Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chairwoman of the House GOP Conference, verified that “anything is on the table when we are in the majority.”
She’s No. 3 in GOP rankings in the House.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas., earlier had confirmed the possibility of using impeachment against Biden, specifically for his failure to respond adequately to the crisis he created at the southern border.
Stefanik explained, “We’ve focused like a laser on the crises in America, and what I hear from voters — even in my district in northern New York, because I represent border patrol officers who have been transferred again and again and again to the southern border — it’s crisis after crisis, it’s a catastrophe.
“Anything is on the table when we are in the majority,” the New York Republican said. “But what I believe we should focus on is conducting oversight and making sure that we’re passing legislation to secure the border once and for all. The policies of the previous administration under President Trump were working.”
Cruz said, just days ago, “I said at the time when we have a Democratic president and a Republican House, you can expect an impeachment proceeding. That’s not how impeachment is meant to work, but I think the Democrats crossed that line, and I think they’ll be enormous pressure on a Republican House to begin impeachment proceedings.”
He said he doesn’t support normalizing impeachments, but says in Biden’s case there are “potentially multiple grounds” for such a move.
The most compelling, he said, is Biden’s “utter lawlessness” regarding the border.
Millions of immigrants came, or are coming, to America because Biden canceled multiple border protection policies that had been created by President Trump, including his construction of a border wall.
Whether the GOP takes the majority in the Senate is less clear, as the party has more members up for re-election than do Democrats.
But Cruz said it’s “overwhelmingly likely” the GOP will be the majority in the House.
“Whether it’s justified or not. … The Democrats weaponized impeachment. They used it for partisan purposes to go after [former President Donald] Trump because they disagreed with him,” Cruz explained.
“And one of the real disadvantages of doing that … is the more you weaponize it and turn it into a partisan cudgel, you know, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
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