Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.) objected to the impeachment of homeland security chief Alejandro Mayorkas last week as “political games.” But earlier in her career, she spearheaded fringe attempts to impeach former president George W. Bush over “climate change” and his vice president, Dick Cheney, for “aggression against the Republic of Iran.”
Baldwin joined her Democratic colleagues and Republican senator Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska) in rejecting the GOP-backed impeachment charges last week against the Department of Homeland Security secretary, whom conservative critics blame for the record-high surge in illegal immigration.
In a statement, Baldwin slammed Republicans for playing “political games” and said impeachment was a “sacred and solemn duty of Congress that is solely reserved to hold those accountable for high crimes and misdemeanors.”
“Unfortunately, what we had in front of us today entirely failed to meet that high standard, lacked evidence, and was just an attempt to score cheap political points, while moving us no closer to fixing the real issues we face at our Southern border,” she said.
Baldwin’s comments are a contrast to her positions earlier in her career, when she helped lead an unsuccessful campaign to impeach former president Bush and then-vice president Cheney over climate change, failure to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, and for being too tough on Iran.
While serving as a House member in 2008, Baldwin was one of only 11 lawmakers to cosponsor articles of impeachment against Bush.
The impeachment charges, which were drafted by former representative Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio), accused Bush of spending “public dollars on a secret propaganda program to manufacture a false cause for war against Iraq” and for failing to “take proper steps to protect the nation prior to September 11, 2001.”
The charges said Bush also “ignored the peril to life and property posed by global climate change, manipulated scientific information and mishandled protective policy, constituting nonfeasance and malfeasance in office, abuse of power, dereliction of duty, and deception of Congress and the American people.”
Baldwin also called for impeaching Cheney in 2007. She cosponsored impeachment charges with Kucinich that accused Cheney of “fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq” and said the Republican vice president “openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran.”
In a statement at the time, Baldwin said Cheney’s actions had “reached the point where evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors by these highest ranking officials cannot be ignored or condoned through inaction.”
Republicans have been united in their support for impeaching Mayorkas, arguing that he has failed to enforce immigration laws.
The Wisconsin Senate race is expected to be one of the most competitive in the country, and it could determine party control of the upper chamber next year. Baldwin, who has served two terms in the Senate, is running for reelection. She is expected to face off against Republican challenger Eric Hovde, a businessman from Madison, Wis.
