Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) filed one article of impeachment against President Joe Biden on Friday after the president decided to withhold weapons delivery to Israel.
Mills said on Thursday he was preparing the articles of impeachment, arguing that Biden’s decision to delay military aid, including 2,000-pound bombs, is similar to the Democrats’ first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, in which he withheld aid to Ukraine in exchange for announcing an investigation into the Biden family.
“As a member of the House of Representatives, it is my constitutional duty to present articles of impeachment against Joe Biden for his most recent abuse of power,” Mills said in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
The article of impeachment, obtained by the Washington Examiner, said that using the powers of his high office, Biden “solicited a ‘quid pro quo’ with the foreign government of Israel by withholding precision guided weapons shipments in order to try and extract military policy changes.”
“This egregious action not only compromised the credibility of the United States but also undermined the interests of our longstanding ally, Israel,” Mills said. “Therefore, President Biden’s conduct warrants impeachment, trial, removal from office, and disqualification from holding any future office under the United States.”
Biden said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that Biden said he would not supply offensive weapons to Israel that could be used in Rafah, the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza.
Shortly after the president’s interview, former Vice President Mike Pence floated the idea of impeachment if Biden continues to not honor the foreign aid package approved by Congress. The $95 billion package included about $26 billion for both Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
Several Republicans have condemned Biden’s decision to withhold aid, but not all are supportive of a subsequent impeachment effort against Biden.
“I never thought about it like that, but I disagree with the strategy and I questioned the secretary of defense about it yesterday — they confirmed it,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) previously told the Washington Examiner. “I mean, I literally am quite shocked after all we went through to get that aid there.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) questioned whether impeachment is an appropriate response, but he called out Democrats who voted to impeach Trump on similar grounds and who don’t view Biden’s recent actions in the same way.
“For the people around here who have situational ethics, they may have been against it when Trump did it, but for some reason they are wearing the same jersey as Biden — I have no use for that, I mean they are all good people, I have no use for their rationalizations,” he said. “It’s wrong, no matter what jersey the president has on, when they violate intent and the letter of a statute.”
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A White House official called efforts to impeach Biden over withholding Israel aid “ridiculous” in a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“Senior administration officials had already made multiple public statements about Rafah similar to the President’s, including that we are also ensuring Israel gets every dollar appropriated in the supplemental,” the official said. “Trump failed to spend dollars appropriated by Congress that he was legally required to spend. This is about a purchase made by a foreign government and our decision whether to deliver that purchase right now, which could enable an operation we’ve publicly and privately objected to.”
