Since they have absolutely no logical defense for the actions of President Donald Trump when it comes to the Ukraine bribery scandal, Republicans in Congress have now resorted to claiming that you simply cannot impeach a president during his first term in office.
Yes. Really.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was a guest on Fox News Monday morning as the House Intelligence Committee prepared to recommend formal articles of impeachment against Trump, and he made this absurd assertion:
“In modern history, we’ve never gone after impeaching a president in the first term.”
“In modern history, we’ve never gone after impeaching a president in the first term” — Kevin McCarthy argues that there’s a precedent against impeaching presidents before their second term ? pic.twitter.com/lPJMJGlIQy
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 9, 2019
That’s certainly true, but then again we’ve never had a president who began committing impeachable acts from the day he stepped foot in the Oval Office. And the U.S. Constitution doesn’t say you can only impeach a president if he’s in his second term in office.
Twitter quickly lit up with scorn in response to McCarthy’s ridiculous remarks:
Huh. I wasn’t aware that Presidential crime-ing is only okay in the first term. Ya learn something new everyday on the Twitters. https://t.co/PCgEVYMKwk
— Kathleen Smith (@KikkiPlanet) December 9, 2019
Foiled. How did we forget about the “Presidential Right to First-Term Crime Spree” clause of the Constitution? https://t.co/ZcuJPplsMO
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) December 9, 2019
This is a novel argument—that crimes are acceptable if committed in the president’s first term. (You gotta hand it to these guys, they are pretty creatively craven when trying to defend the indefensible). https://t.co/KEuKYHN621
— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) December 9, 2019
lol the second term precedent! https://t.co/6wuJGIk35D
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 9, 2019
Everyone knows the first term is a mulligan. #ItsInTheConstitution
— Hugo Stiglitz (@teddie_vedder) December 9, 2019
This is the most ridiculous argument of all of them. I can’t with these people.
And for the last time, yes people wanted to impeach him from the beginning because he was corrupt from the beginning!@GOPLeader— Loliz (@Loliz) December 9, 2019
Yes, by all means, let’s give Presidents a four year pass on corruption—regardless of how much damage it does to our country—before we get “serious” about reigning them in. That sounds like a perfectly logical plan.
— Left of Center (@centerleft3360) December 9, 2019
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