Boehner Claims Impeachment Talk A White House ‘Scam’
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) declared Tuesday that talk of impeaching President Obama was actually the fault of the Democrats, contending that Republicans on the hill have “no plans” to begin impeachment proceedings against Mr. Obama.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference, Boehner laid the blame for the impeachment talk at the feet of the president’s staff, The Huffington Post reports:
“This whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president’s own staff, and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Why? Because they’re trying to rally their people to give money and show up in this year’s elections.”
Speaker Boehner then attempted to put talk of impeachment to rest while accusing Democrats of perpetrating a “scam” by pushing the issue:
“We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no future plans. Listen. It’s all a scam started by Democrats at the White House.”
While senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said last week that the White House is indeed taking the threat of impeachment seriously, the possibility has been raised by a number of Republicans as well. Over the weekend, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), who is a newly minted member of Boehner’s leadership team, refused to take the possibility of impeachment off the table. Republicans such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Rep. Blake Farenthold(R-Texas), and Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas), amid several others, have all raised the possibility of impeachment, as has Sarah Palin.
Democratic campaign groups have indeed warned supporters about impending impeachment proceedings in an effort to raise money, as CBS News reports. This past weekend, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) raised $2.1 million, marking its best four days of the current election cycle.
House Republicans plan to vote on a resolution this week that authorizes a lawsuit against President Obama, amid charges that he has failed to implement his signature Affordable Care Act as it was written. The lawsuit, which marks a change in tactics for a Republican controlled house that has voted more than 50 times to defund, fix, delay, or repeal the act, has been viewed by some as a doorway to impeaching President Obama, as The Inquisitr previously reported.
Reaction to Boehner’s comments from both sides was swift:
drudge accuses boehner of “surrender” on impeachment. but the right isnt pushing for it or anything, lol.
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) July 29, 2014
Boehner Rules Out Impeachment of Dictator Obama ? http://t.co/cmfSNnm7u3 #ImpeachObama — TheTeaParty.net (@TheTeaParty_net) July 29, 2014
‘Boehner slam!’: Speaker says impeachment is a total scam unlike the House GOP’s totally legitimate not-silly-at-all lawsuit
— Literally Twitchy (@TwitchyDotDum) July 29, 2014
Boehner: There’s no reason we’d impeach the law-breaking, anti-American, socialist Hitler tyrant in the White House http://t.co/sHGfkOGBbf — Chernynkaya (@Chernynkaya) July 29, 2014
[Image via Politico]
