Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) said Thursday he’s preparing articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden for pausing weapons delivery to Israel, as the decision drew swift backlash from Republicans and some centrist Democrats.
The Florida Republican argued Biden’s move to delay military aid, including 2,000-pound bombs, amid disapproval over Israel’s plans to expand military operations in southern Gaza, is similar to Democrats’ first impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, in which he withheld aid to Ukraine in exchange for announcing an investigation into the Biden family.
“The House has no choice but to impeach President ‘Quid pro Joe’ Biden,” Mills said in a statement to Fox News. “As Vice President, Biden was caught threatening to withhold funding and aid to Ukraine unless they fired the attorney general investigating Burisma, a company financially benefiting his son Hunter, not to mention the 10% share for ‘the big guy’ himself.”
“Now, Joe Biden is pressuring Israel, our biggest ally in the Middle East, by pausing their funding that has already been approved in the House, if they don’t stop all operations with Hamas. It’s a very clear message, ‘this for that,’” Mills added.
The House’s impeachment of Trump in 2019 resulted in a charge of abuse of power, referencing he withheld aid to Ukraine while asking President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate his political rivals, which included Biden. The Senate eventually acquitted Trump.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden said he would not supply offensive weapons to Israel that could be used in Rafah, the last major Hamas stronghold in Gaza, where more than 1 million civilians are sheltering. Biden said the U.S. would still be committed to Israel’s defense and would supply Iron Dome rocket interceptors and other defensive weapons.
Shortly after the interview, former Vice President Mike Pence dangled the idea of impeachment if Biden doesn’t honor the foreign aid commitments approved by Congress. Biden recently signed into law a $95 billion foreign aid package that included about $26 billion for both Israel and humanitarian aid for Gaza.
“I’m old enough to remember when Democrats impeached another President for supposedly withholding foreign aid that had been approved by Congress,” Pence said of Trump’s first impeachment involving aid to Ukraine. “Stop the threats Joe. America Stands with Israel!”
Earlier on Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said the House must abide by the precedent Democrats set in 2019 during Trump’s 2019 impeachment.
“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 posted on X.
However, it doesn’t seem like other Republican senators share Cotton’s view. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) condemned Biden’s decision to withhold the weapons shipment during a press conference with other Republican colleagues and made it clear his aim was to urge the president to reverse course when asked by reporters about whether Biden should be impeached.
“I didn’t come here to talk about that, given what they did to Trump, I think you could make a good argument. But, I didn’t come here to impeach the president,” Graham said to reporters. “I came here to let everybody know we don’t agree with this decision.”
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said she hadn’t thought about the impeachment comparisons.
“I never thought about it like that, but I disagree with the strategy and I questioned the secretary of defense about it yesterday — they confirmed it,” Capito told the Washington Examiner. “I mean, I literally am quite shocked after all we went through to get that aid there.”
Asked about the decision to delay the shipment at a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed the paused shipment and said no “final determination” about sending military assistance had been made.
“We’ve been very clear from the very beginning that Israel shouldn’t launch a major attack on Rafah without accounting for and protecting those civilians that are hitting that battlespace,” Austin testified. “And, again, as we have assessed the situation, we paused one shipment of high payload munitions.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), the vice chairwoman of the Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said she did not believe halting the weapons shipment was an impeachable offense but expressed concern about not being properly informed of the administration’s actions.
“I’m looking into exactly what should have been done about informing us because I learned about it from Axios over the weekend,” Collins said. “I’m the vice chair of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and worked very hard to get that funded.”
“So, on foreign military sales, it’s more defined on the approvals you have to get, so I don’t know, I’m not sure which category the weapons fall into,” she added.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) also questioned whether impeachment would be an appropriate response, and emphasized impeachment should not be thrown around.
“I wonder — [Biden] is obviously not following the letter of the law, so I’m going to leave it to an attorney to determine whether or not that is a criminal violation or a violation of trust. I don’t know,” Tillis told the Washington Examiner.
“I’m pretty dogmatic when it comes to the use of impeachment, I think it should be rare. I think it should clearly point to what a non-legal person like myself could say, ‘OK, that’s a high crime, that’s a misdemeanor,’ versus just an absolute failure in leadership. That one I understand,” he added.
Tillis called out Democrats who voted to impeach Trump on similar grounds and who don’t view Biden’s recent actions in the same capacity.
“For the people around here who have situational ethics, they may have been against it when Trump did it, but for some reason they are wearing the same jersey as Biden — I have no use for that, I mean they are all good people, I have no use for their rationalizations,” he said. “It’s wrong, no matter what jersey the president has on, when they violate intent and the letter of a statute.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who voted to impeach Trump during the first Senate trial, said he does not see a parallel between Biden’s pausing of military aid to Israel and Trump’s withholding of aid to Ukraine in exchange for an investigation into his political rivals.
“I see more of a parallel with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush withholding military aid to achieve influence over Israeli actions,” Blumenthal told the Washington Examiner. “It should not prevent us from continuing military aid, which I hope we will, we have a moral obligation and self-interest in continuing military aid to Israel, which I think we will do. Israel has a right to defend itself.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), who has been outspoken about his disapproval of Biden’s pause of the weapons to Israel, joked about the potential of impeaching the president.
“Months ago — I was like, ‘No, no, please don’t.’ Now I’m like, ‘Go ahead and do that dumb s***,’” Fetterman said with a laugh.
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The Pennsylvania senator referenced his tongue-in-cheek gift to Rep. James Comer (R-KY) when he held the first hearing for Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Biden last year. The inquiry, which looked into accusations that Biden used his influence to help his son’s business, fell apart.
“In fact, I delivered a case of Bud Light to Comer over there and I’m like, ‘Go ahead, congratulations, you might get thirsty,’” he added.