Posted on 09/01/2021 11:08:16 AM PDT by RandFan
Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) on Wednesday shot down calls from within his own party to try to impeach President Biden, pointing to next year's midterm election as a potential check on the administration.
"Well, look, the president is not going to be removed from office. There's a Democratic House, a narrowly Democratic Senate. That's not going to happen," McConnell said at an event in Kentucky, asked if Biden's handling of the drawdown in Afghanistan merits impeachment and if he would support it.
"There isn't going to be an impeachment," he added.
McConnell's comments come as some Republicans in the House and Senate call for Biden's impeachment or for him to resign or be involuntarily removed from office over the botched Afghanistan exit.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said last week that he thought Biden should be impeached. Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who chairs the Senate GOP campaign arm, questioned if it was time to invoke the 25th Amendment, which allows the majority of the Cabinet or a body appointed by the Congress to remove a president.
Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) both called for Biden to resign and House conservatives, including some of former President Trump's biggest allies, have called for Biden to be impeached.
McConnell's comments aren't the first time he's pushed back on impeachment calls. Asked late last month if he agreed with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who filed three impeachment articles, that Biden should be impeached, McConnell told a Kentucky TV station: "No."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has also stopped short of embracing impeachment calls, while predicting that a GOP-controlled House would probe Biden's Afghanistan exit and that there would be a "day of reckoning."
After Democrats twice impeached Trump, first in 2020 for abuse of power in his dealings with Ukraine and in 2021 for inciting an insurrection after a mob of his supporters breached the Capitol, GOP strategists have predicted that Biden is likely to face impeachment calls if Republicans take back the House next year.
If a GOP-controlled House were to impeach Biden, it could eat up precious floor time in the Senate where trials typically take weeks and grind all other business to a halt. No president has been formally found guilty at the end of a Senate trial.
McConnell, instead of looking ahead to 2023, pointed to the midterm elections, where Republicans are feeling increasingly bullish about the chances of winning back the House or Senate, as an opportunity to hold Biden accountable.
"The report card you get is every two years," McConnell said. "I think the way these behaviors get adjusted in this country is at the ballot box."
To win back the House, Republicans need to pick up a handful of seats and need a net gain of just one seat to flip the Senate.
"I do think we're likely to see a typical kind of midterm reaction to a new administration... Typically there is some buyer's remorse," he said.
McConnell is reasonable. We’re supposed to be governing ourselves through elections.
I’m for letting the Democrats get bashed for another year without the relief of removing Biden, and for those that voted for Biden getting another year to reflect on what they did.
Even if hes right they could still pursue it if just to harass the evil Pelosi.
Not true.
Harris wants to be a 2 term President. She is corrupt and nasty but her own self interest keeps her in check
Biden cannot even recognize a self interest anymore
A corrupt politician is survivable, a crazy one very well might not be
Couldn’t agree more.
Dead Donatello?
Sadly, it'll probably be the same story. Exhibit A: Republicans were going to dismantle Obamacare once they took control of Congress.
The Dims will take Biden out, spectacularly, in a bloody coup and then blame it on Trump supporters.
It worked for Hitler, LBJ and the rest.
It stinks, but they can’t afford to let the damage continue. If Biden hangs on until next November, they’ll lose congress.
They are likely planning right now for a coup. The press will fan the chorus into a Kristallnacht event. In one fell swoop, elimination of two impediments: Biden and us.
Go make another vaccine public service message Mitch. That’s about all you’re good for anyway.
If the Republicans can take the Senate in 2022 who do you think they would elect as leader?
Yeah, so let's just sweep this under the carpet, and pretend none of this ever happened.
Them and the natural born citizen cult. Oh yeah and the fringed flag admiralty court sovreign citizen faction. And chemtrails dont forget chemtrails. I wonder how much could be accomplished if so much energy wasnt wasted tilting at windmills.
Turtle.
I was lazy...
Shelby
He wasn’t up for a first round with President Trump in 2020. He only won because of massive voter fraud.
Yea, remember what he did to his fellow native Alabamian, Roy Moore in 2017.
Well, he will fight conservatives in Republican primaries even if he secretly likes Dems.
I wish Joe and Cameltoe and Nancy and Schiff, etc., would take long helicopter rides together.
“Well, McConnell is an ahole but he happens to be right.”
Yeah, so let’s just sweep this under the carpet, and pretend none of this ever happened.
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I was not suggesting that at all. I was simply being realistic. He would never even be impeached in the House today because we lack a majority and I don’t believe any Dems would vote to Impeach.
I believe talking about impeachment and all the reasons it should happen can be a more effective weapon then trying and failing to impeach. Doing that simply gives the Left a victory to crow about.
I agree on both your points. No majority in the House (for now). 50/50 in the Senate. Not gonna happen. And all the "He needs to go!" bluster said by politicians is not getting on the MSM news and shaping public opinion for his removal.(sadly) Just campaign brochure points
Up can’t beat unreasonable leftist Democrats with reasonableness. This why Republicans are not respected.
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