Washington Examiner
Here are the Republicans calling for Biden's removal amid Afghanistan fallout
The fall of Kabul on Sunday and the resultant emergency evacuation of U.S. citizens from Afghanistan have triggered a wave of outrage among lawmakers, with numerous Republicans going beyond mere criticism of the Biden administration's drawdown of U.S. troops to say that the president ought to vacate office.
The invocation of the 25th Amendment, resignation, and impeachment have all been promoted in recent days as possible solutions by a growing number of Republican officials, who say Biden's actions since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban call into question the president's fitness to serve.
Here are the GOP members who have called on Biden to leave or be removed from the Oval Office so far.
25th Amendment
Multiple lawmakers have said the use of the 25th Amendment (which allows the vice president, a majority of the president's Cabinet, and two-thirds Congress to vote to remove a president whom they determine to be "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office"
may be in order.
Sen. Rick Scott: "After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?" Scott wrote in a tweet Monday.
Rep. Claudia Tenney: Tenney, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was less equivocal, saying it is "clear" Biden is failing to perform his duties.
"Last year, my colleague [Rep.] Jamie Raskin stated 'The 25th Amendment was adopted 50 years ago, but Congress has never set up the body it calls for to determine presidential fitness in the event of physical or psychological incapacity. Now is the time to do it.' Well, NOW is the time," Tenney, who also called for Biden to resign on Thursday, tweeted Monday.
Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought during the previous Congress to establish a commission within the body to participate in 25th Amendment proceedings during the waning days of President Donald Trump's administration.
"It is now clear our Commander In Chief & his administration are incapable of or unwilling to perform their duties. If Biden does not resign, it is time for Congress to take action. Our military can't be led in this manner, it is a national security disaster waiting to happen," Tenney added.
REPUBLICANS FLOAT FAR-FETCHED 25TH AMENDMENT PLAN TO OUST BIDEN OVER KABUL DEBACLE
Rep. Ronny Jackson: Jackson, a former White House physician who now serves as a Republican congressman from Texas, has repeatedly suggested invoking the 25th Amendment.
"Remember when I said it was time to consider the 25th Amendment and the LIARS in the liberal press ATTACKED me?" Jackson tweeted Monday. "I wonder what they think now after Biden is very OBVIOUSLY mentally incapable of leading during a crisis. Something MUST be done!"
Jackson went further on Friday and urged Biden to resign his office.
"The time has come for Biden to RESIGN! I've been saying for MONTHS that he's not cognitively capable, and now that's on full display to the American people," he said. "We can't afford to have someone like this in office ANY longer. Time to move on!"
Resignation
Biden has the ability to step down voluntarily, an option many Republicans are urging the president to consider. No other member of government would need to take any further action to implement a resignation. If Biden resigned, he would become the second president in U.S. history to vacate the office of his own volition, following former President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.
Former President Donald Trump: Trump, who was himself twice impeached but not removed, led the pack in putting the onus on Biden to step down, telling the president to "resign in disgrace" on Sunday after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as the Taliban swiftly moved into Kabul.
"It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan," Trump said in a statement, also blaming Biden for the present surge in COVID-19 infections and the historic number of illegal border crossings.
Trump again pushed for Biden's resignation through a fundraising email sent by his Save America political action committee Friday.
"Joe Biden went on TV and blamed ME for HIS failure with Afghanistan," Trump's email read. "BIG LIES! I’ve activated a 3X-IMPACT when you step up and DEMAND that he RESIGN."
Biden has, in multiple appearances this week, stood by his strategy in Afghanistan, where thousands of U.S. citizens and eligible Afghan nationals eligible for U.S. visas remain stranded.
He pointed to the deal the Trump administration struck with the Taliban in February 2020, which had pledged U.S. troop withdrawal by May 1, 2021.
"U.S. forces had already drawn down during the Trump administration from roughly 15,500 American forces to 2,500 troops in the country, and the Taliban was at its strongest militarily since 2001," Biden said in a speech Monday.
"The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season," he added.
Rep. Andy Biggs: Biggs called on both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to step down, a move that would leave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is third in the line of presidential succession, to become commander in chief.
"These past few days have proven what we've already known about Biden and Harris," the Arizona Republican said Tuesday. "They are completely unfit to lead. They must resign!"
Impeachment
The United States has experienced four presidential impeachment proceedings, half of which occurred during the final two years of Trump's term in office. Before Trump was impeached in 2019 and 2021, former Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were both impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively. In all four proceedings, the Senate was unable to muster the two-thirds vote necessary to convict the president and remove him from office.
Republicans were roiled by the impeachment proceedings against Trump, and some members of the party have clamored to subject Biden to the same process. While vowing not to spearhead a political impeachment proceeding, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a favorite for speaker if Republicans regain control of the lower chamber in 2022, told Fox News Thursday that the caucus "would move impeachment" if Biden "takes an illegal action." The minority leader did not clarify whether he believes Biden has done anything illegal in his presidency so far.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: On Friday, the South Carolina senator joined his fellow Republicans calling for Biden's removal by supporting impeachment, although his call to action was not without conditions.
"If we leave any Americans behind, or if we leave thousands of Afghans who fought bravely alongside us behind, President Joe Biden deserves to be impeached for a High Crime and Misdemeanor of Dereliction of Duty," Graham tweeted Friday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Greene said Thursday that she intended to file articles of impeachment against Biden on Friday because she "believe in firing people when they are corrupt and do a bad job, and Joe Biden is failing America and needs to be impeached," she said during a rally in Iowa.
The Georgia Republican previously introduced an article of impeachment against Biden the day after he took office, but the action was not taken up.
Greene separately called Biden a "piece of s***" over the situation in Afghanistan in a video posted online this week.
"Joe Biden, you are not a president. You are a piece of s***," Greene said. "Thousands of Americans are stuck over there in Afghanistan, and you are letting the Taliban kick your a** while you are lecturing governors about masks and vaccines. Do your job: Bring these Americans home."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The president has indicated he intends to run for reelection in 2024, suggesting he has no plans to resign. With Democratic control of both chambers of Congress, it is highly improbable Republican lawmakers will achieve the requisite thresholds to effectuate the 25th Amendment or an impeachment conviction.
If Biden, 78, were to vacate office by any of these means, Harris would assume the presidency.
source
https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-calling-bi...00530.html
Here are the Republicans calling for Biden's removal amid Afghanistan fallout
The fall of Kabul on Sunday and the resultant emergency evacuation of U.S. citizens from Afghanistan have triggered a wave of outrage among lawmakers, with numerous Republicans going beyond mere criticism of the Biden administration's drawdown of U.S. troops to say that the president ought to vacate office.
The invocation of the 25th Amendment, resignation, and impeachment have all been promoted in recent days as possible solutions by a growing number of Republican officials, who say Biden's actions since Afghanistan fell to the Taliban call into question the president's fitness to serve.
Here are the GOP members who have called on Biden to leave or be removed from the Oval Office so far.
25th Amendment
Multiple lawmakers have said the use of the 25th Amendment (which allows the vice president, a majority of the president's Cabinet, and two-thirds Congress to vote to remove a president whom they determine to be "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office"
may be in order. Sen. Rick Scott: "After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?" Scott wrote in a tweet Monday.
Rep. Claudia Tenney: Tenney, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was less equivocal, saying it is "clear" Biden is failing to perform his duties.
"Last year, my colleague [Rep.] Jamie Raskin stated 'The 25th Amendment was adopted 50 years ago, but Congress has never set up the body it calls for to determine presidential fitness in the event of physical or psychological incapacity. Now is the time to do it.' Well, NOW is the time," Tenney, who also called for Biden to resign on Thursday, tweeted Monday.
Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sought during the previous Congress to establish a commission within the body to participate in 25th Amendment proceedings during the waning days of President Donald Trump's administration.
"It is now clear our Commander In Chief & his administration are incapable of or unwilling to perform their duties. If Biden does not resign, it is time for Congress to take action. Our military can't be led in this manner, it is a national security disaster waiting to happen," Tenney added.
REPUBLICANS FLOAT FAR-FETCHED 25TH AMENDMENT PLAN TO OUST BIDEN OVER KABUL DEBACLE
Rep. Ronny Jackson: Jackson, a former White House physician who now serves as a Republican congressman from Texas, has repeatedly suggested invoking the 25th Amendment.
"Remember when I said it was time to consider the 25th Amendment and the LIARS in the liberal press ATTACKED me?" Jackson tweeted Monday. "I wonder what they think now after Biden is very OBVIOUSLY mentally incapable of leading during a crisis. Something MUST be done!"
Jackson went further on Friday and urged Biden to resign his office.
"The time has come for Biden to RESIGN! I've been saying for MONTHS that he's not cognitively capable, and now that's on full display to the American people," he said. "We can't afford to have someone like this in office ANY longer. Time to move on!"
Resignation
Biden has the ability to step down voluntarily, an option many Republicans are urging the president to consider. No other member of government would need to take any further action to implement a resignation. If Biden resigned, he would become the second president in U.S. history to vacate the office of his own volition, following former President Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.
Former President Donald Trump: Trump, who was himself twice impeached but not removed, led the pack in putting the onus on Biden to step down, telling the president to "resign in disgrace" on Sunday after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as the Taliban swiftly moved into Kabul.
"It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan," Trump said in a statement, also blaming Biden for the present surge in COVID-19 infections and the historic number of illegal border crossings.
Trump again pushed for Biden's resignation through a fundraising email sent by his Save America political action committee Friday.
"Joe Biden went on TV and blamed ME for HIS failure with Afghanistan," Trump's email read. "BIG LIES! I’ve activated a 3X-IMPACT when you step up and DEMAND that he RESIGN."
Biden has, in multiple appearances this week, stood by his strategy in Afghanistan, where thousands of U.S. citizens and eligible Afghan nationals eligible for U.S. visas remain stranded.
He pointed to the deal the Trump administration struck with the Taliban in February 2020, which had pledged U.S. troop withdrawal by May 1, 2021.
"U.S. forces had already drawn down during the Trump administration from roughly 15,500 American forces to 2,500 troops in the country, and the Taliban was at its strongest militarily since 2001," Biden said in a speech Monday.
"The choice I had to make, as your president, was either to follow through on that agreement or be prepared to go back to fighting the Taliban in the middle of the spring fighting season," he added.
Rep. Andy Biggs: Biggs called on both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to step down, a move that would leave House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is third in the line of presidential succession, to become commander in chief.
"These past few days have proven what we've already known about Biden and Harris," the Arizona Republican said Tuesday. "They are completely unfit to lead. They must resign!"
Impeachment
The United States has experienced four presidential impeachment proceedings, half of which occurred during the final two years of Trump's term in office. Before Trump was impeached in 2019 and 2021, former Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were both impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively. In all four proceedings, the Senate was unable to muster the two-thirds vote necessary to convict the president and remove him from office.
Republicans were roiled by the impeachment proceedings against Trump, and some members of the party have clamored to subject Biden to the same process. While vowing not to spearhead a political impeachment proceeding, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a favorite for speaker if Republicans regain control of the lower chamber in 2022, told Fox News Thursday that the caucus "would move impeachment" if Biden "takes an illegal action." The minority leader did not clarify whether he believes Biden has done anything illegal in his presidency so far.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: On Friday, the South Carolina senator joined his fellow Republicans calling for Biden's removal by supporting impeachment, although his call to action was not without conditions.
"If we leave any Americans behind, or if we leave thousands of Afghans who fought bravely alongside us behind, President Joe Biden deserves to be impeached for a High Crime and Misdemeanor of Dereliction of Duty," Graham tweeted Friday.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: Greene said Thursday that she intended to file articles of impeachment against Biden on Friday because she "believe
The Georgia Republican previously introduced an article of impeachment against Biden the day after he took office, but the action was not taken up.
Greene separately called Biden a "piece of s***" over the situation in Afghanistan in a video posted online this week.
"Joe Biden, you are not a president. You are a piece of s***," Greene said. "Thousands of Americans are stuck over there in Afghanistan, and you are letting the Taliban kick your a** while you are lecturing governors about masks and vaccines. Do your job: Bring these Americans home."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The president has indicated he intends to run for reelection in 2024, suggesting he has no plans to resign. With Democratic control of both chambers of Congress, it is highly improbable Republican lawmakers will achieve the requisite thresholds to effectuate the 25th Amendment or an impeachment conviction.
If Biden, 78, were to vacate office by any of these means, Harris would assume the presidency.
source
https://news.yahoo.com/republicans-calling-bi...00530.html
