The GOP-led House should impeach President Joe Biden for suggesting the United States could halt weapons going to Israel if it launches a full-scale ground operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, a Republican senator said on Wednesday.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) made the case against Biden by referring back to the first impeachment probe against former President Donald Trump related to his administration holding up security aid to Ukraine while he sought a “favor” from its leader ahead of the 2020 election.
“The House has no choice but to impeach Biden based on the Trump-Ukraine precedent of withholding foreign aid to help with reelection. Only with Biden, it’s true,” Cotton said in a post to X.
Biden is under immense pressure from the left wing of the Democratic Party to be harsher on Israel over its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip as he competes against Trump for another term in the White House.
During a CNN town hall on Wednesday, Biden said he “made it clear” to Israel that if it conducts a major ground operation in Rafah, “we’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) used a “Fox and Friends” appearance on Thursday to accuse Biden of betraying a deal that was made with lawmakers to pass a $95 billion foreign aid bill last month that included support for Israel.
“He’s defying the will of Congress and he’s defying what his own top officials in the White House assured me in writing and verbally before that supplemental was passed and even in the days since,” Johnson said.
It remains to be seen just how much support Cotton’s push for an Israel-focused impeachment will get in the House, but Biden is already facing a corruption-focused inquiry led by Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY).
Democratic strategist Kevin Walling argued on Fox News that former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush used the same foreign policy “tool” as Biden is doing with Israel, while asserting Trump got impeached because he sought dirt on Biden — his political rival — from Ukraine.
In a prior strike against the Biden administration, the House voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis, but the Democrat-controlled Senate quashed the charges last month before a full trial could be held.
