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FROM THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW

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REPUBLICANS CONCOCT AN ODD NEW REASON TO TRY TO IMPEACH BIDEN

Some congressional Republicans want to impeach President Joe Biden over his
policy toward Israel. The White House was right to call this "ridiculous."

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May 10, 2024, 8:41 AM EDT
By Steve Benen

Republican talk about impeaching President Joe Biden had, by all appearances,
run its course. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer did his best,
spending more than a year searching desperately for evidence of wrongdoing, but
the Kentucky congressman failed spectacularly, and even many of the Democrat’s
fiercest GOP critics are moving on.

At least, they were. The Hill reported:

> Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is prepping articles of impeachment against President
> Biden after he warned that the U.S. will stop supplying offensive weapons to
> Israel if its forces launch an invasion into Rafah. Mills, a first-year
> lawmaker, unveiled his impeachment resolution Thursday, which charges Biden
> with abuse of power, and he said he plans to “pursue action” Friday.

For those keeping score, there are now seven different GOP impeachment
resolutions that target the president currently pending on Capitol Hill, none of
which is likely to reach the House floor.




Mills’ measure came just hours after Republican Sen. Tom Cotton said Congress
“has no choice but to impeach Biden.”

As the Republicans’ argument goes, the incumbent president said this week that
the United States would not supply Israel with certain weapons and artillery
shells if its military invades Rafah. To hear GOP officials tell it, this is an
impeachable offense because ... well, it’s a little complicated.

As best as I can tell, Mills and Cotton believe there’s a parallel between
Biden’s policy and Donald Trump’s 2019 extortion scheme toward Ukraine, in which
the Republican withheld security aid in the hopes of getting Ukraine to help him
cheat in his 2020 re-election campaign. It's the scandal that led to Trump's
first impeachment.

This is not, however, a serious argument, in large part because there’s nothing
illegal about Biden’s policy, and he's not trying to leverage security aid for
campaign help.



What’s more, a White House official told The Hill that the GOP’s claims are
“ridiculous,” adding, “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. 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.”


RECOMMENDED


MADDOWBLOGFRIDAY’S MINI-REPORT, 5.10.24

There’s also historical precedent to consider. As an Associated Press report
noted, then-President Dwight Eisenhower “pressured Israel with the threat of
sanctions into withdrawing from the Sinai in 1957 amid the Suez Crisis,” while
then-President George H.W. Bush “held up $10 billion in loan guarantees to force
the cessation of Israeli settlement activity in the occupied territories.”

What’s more, Ronald Reagan delayed the delivery of F16 fighter jets to Israel
and imposed a ban on some weapons sales to Israel “following a congressional
probe that found Israel had used them in populated areas in its 1982 offensive
in Lebanon.”

Congressional Democrats — it’s worth noting for context — didn’t respond to any
of these developments with impeachment threats.



Update: Shortly after I published this post, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise
appeared on Fox Business and appeared to take this latest impeachment push
seriously.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog
and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The
Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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