Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) dismissed a surprise push to impeach President Joe Biden as an “absurd” effort that is out of step with the Constitution.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) introduced a measure on Tuesday evening to impeach Biden over his handling of the southern border. The legislation is guaranteed a vote on the House floor given it was put forward as a privileged resolution. Yet the move is opposed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who argued in a GOP conference meeting the following morning that the articles were premature and would reflect poorly on the party.
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Republican senators have been reluctant to wade into the controversy, even as many of Boebert’s House colleagues urge restraint on something as serious as impeachment.
Yet Romney, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict then-President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, did not hesitate to criticize Boebert for the push.
“Look, there has to be the allegation of a high crime or misdemeanor, which there has not been,” he told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “So, it’s an absurd political process. If at some point, someone alleges a crime, why then, it’s legitimate, but that hasn’t happened yet.”
Romney, like other Republicans, takes issue with Biden’s handling of the border. The president has presided over a massive surge of illegal border crossings, a problem the party attributes to his reversal of Trump-era immigration policies.
Biden has since taken a harder line on the southern border, imposing sweeping new asylum restrictions in February. House Republicans nonetheless blame the Biden administration for not doing more to crack down on fentanyl being trafficked into the country. Some continue to claim Biden is pursuing “open borders” policies.
Yet Romney insisted that is no reason to impeach the president, a tool the Constitution reserves for treason, bribery, and other “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
His own vote to convict Trump related to charges the former president incited a riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“There have been lots of lousy presidents, but that’s not a reason to impeach someone, because there’s this little thing called the Constitution,” Romney said. “Not doing a good job certainly fits the bill here, but it’s just not in the Constitution.”
Other Senate Republicans hesitated to weigh in on Boebert’s effort. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who joined Romney in voting to convict Trump, said he had not given it any thought.
“The nice thing about having the House filter that, is they do the first pass and then I can kind of figure it out after that,” he told the Washington Examiner.
The measure is not expected to move forward given bipartisan opposition. Even some of Boebert’s conservative colleagues have expressed a desire to move impeachment proceedings through regular order. The privileged resolution, by contrast, is guaranteed a floor vote within two days.
If Boebert decides to move forward, the measure is all but sure to be tabled later this week.
But it nonetheless reflects an impatience among hardline Republicans to punish the Biden administration for its border policies.
McCarthy is entertaining a push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over what they consider his “dereliction of duty” at the border, yet the process is playing out over the course of months as House Republicans hold a series of hearings on his leadership.
The party views parallel investigations into alleged corruption by the Biden family, including claims of a bribery scheme involving Biden in his capacity as vice president, as a more likely avenue to eventually impeach the president.
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Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) does not consider the border impeachment resolutions to be a particularly productive use of the House’s time, a sentiment Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) shares. But Cramer still saw messaging value in the push.
“More power to the House,” he told the Washington Examiner. “The House is a raucous place — they have impeachment responsibility as well as power, and it will be up to their voters to decide whether it’s an abuse of that power or not. But certainly, there’s important messaging that surrounds this kind of activity.”
