Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

GOP face ‘pressure’ to impeach Biden following midterms, claims Republican congresswoman

Republicans remain slightly favoured to win House in November

John Bowden
Washington DC
Monday 26 September 2022 10:35 EDT
Comments
Everyone is entitled to be an idiot’: Joe Biden responds to heckler

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Republicans may vote to impeach Joe Biden if they take the House in November, a South Carolina congresswoman revealed on Sunday.

Nancy Mace said as much during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, evoking a “wow” from a surprised Chuck Todd.

“I believe there’s a lot of pressure on Republicans to have that vote,” she said.

“I think that is something that some folks are considering,” Ms Mace continued.

The congresswoman did not, however, suggest that she would be supportive of such a measure. Ms Mace suggested the opposite, actually, telling Mr Todd that her focus under a GOP-controlled House would be “waste, fraud, and abuse” — typical issues under Congress’s oversight purview.

The South Carolina Republican survived a primary challenge backed by Donald Trump himself earlier this year after she admonished the former president for his role in the January 6 attack on Congress. She did not, however, support the 2021 House vote to impeach Mr Trump after the attack.

Impeachment of Joe Biden has been largely floated by far-right members of the GOP including Marjorie Taylor Greene up to this point. The future of such a measure would be short-lived, given the nonexistant possibility that the Senate would vote to convict Mr Biden absent serious evidence of wrongdoing. Neither Republican leaders in the House nor the Senate have expressed interest or support for pursuing impeachment, at least publicly, so far.

Tellingly, supporters of the issue have yet to even hone in on one supposed act of wrongdoing for which the president should supposedly be impeached.

Some, like Ms Greene, have pointed to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and elsewhere as reason for pursuing impeachment, arguing that Mr Biden was involved in a kickback scheme.

Others, like Sen Ted Cruz, have raised border security as an issue that would lead to impeachment instead.

“Probably the most compelling is the utter lawlessness of President Biden’s refusal to enforce the border. His decision to just defy federal immigration laws and allow 2 million people to come here unimpeded in direct contravention of his obligation under Article 2 of the Constitution to take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” said Mr Cruz on a recent episode of his podcast. “That is probably the strongest grounds right now for impeachment, but there may be others.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in