2020 Democrat Joe Biden dismissed GOP Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst’s warning that Republicans could impeach him if he wins the presidency.
“She just reinforces everything that was the reason why the president was being impeached: They very much don’t want to face me obviously,” he told the Des Moines Register on Sunday. “I’ve never seen a sitting president and his allies this frightened about who may be the nominee.”
Earlier in the day, Ernst said during an interview that her party could hypothetically waste no time in attempting to impeach Biden should the former vice president secure the White House in November’s general election.
“I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened,” the Iowa senator said. “Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him.’”
Ernst, 49, added that the grounds for impeaching Biden, 77, would be “for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son was on the board making over a million dollars a year.”
While Biden said the pair have not personally met, they have been trading shots in recent days. As Biden prepares for the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses on Monday, the state’s senator questioned if President Trump’s impeachment trial would have a negative impact on him with voters because White House defense lawyers attempted to paint him as corrupt.
Afterward, Biden said Ernst “spilled the beans” an encouraged Iowans to “ruin” her night by caucusing for him. He repeated a similar line on Sunday, telling voters, “Why don’t you all show Joni Ernst just how smart you are by caucusing for me?”
Despite the back-and-forth with Ernst, the 2020 contender said it wouldn’t stop him from trying to work with congressional Republicans if he secures the Oval Office.
“There is an appetite, but not the Joni Ernsts of the world,” he said. “There’s some that are just beyond the pale, but I think there are at least a dozen Republicans who know we have to do something about health care, at least a dozen of them know we have to do something about keeping prescription drug prices down, know we have to do something about increasing access to education and so on.”
Biden currently leads the pack of 2020 Democrats in nationwide polls with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders closely following.
