He’s late to the party, but former Vice President Joe Biden is all aboard the impeachment train, according to a new report.
“Joe Biden will publicly use a Tuesday afternoon press conference to back the impeachment of President Trump if he fails to cooperate with Congress over claims by an intelligence community whistleblower about his dealings with Ukraine,” the Washington Examiner reports.
“He’s going to make the point that Trump’s latest abuses are on top of all of his prior abuses. He’s going to call on Trump to comply with all of Congress’ outstanding, lawful requests for information — in the Ukraine matter, and in the other investigations — and if Trump does not comply, Congress has no choice but to impeach,” a Biden campaign spokesman told the Washington Examiner.
Plenty of other prominent Democrats have already espoused support for impeachment.
“If in fact, he was pressuring the Ukrainian president to open an investigation on the former vice president, Vice President Biden, that’s an incredible abuse of power,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) said. “A sitting president trying to basically force another president of another country to go after a political rival that by itself … is worthy of impeachment.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took to Twitter on Tuesday to say: “The House must impeach. It must start today.”
Warren also accused Congress of standing idly by as Trump abuses his presidential powers. “By failing to act, Congress is complicit in Trump’s latest attempt to solicit foreign interference to aid him in U.S. elections,” Warren said. “Do your constitutional duty and impeach the president.”
“A president is sitting in the Oval Office, right now, who continues to commit crimes,” Warren tweeted. “He continues because he knows his Justice Department won’t act and believes Congress won’t either. Today’s news confirmed he thinks he’s above the law. If we do nothing, he’ll be right.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been pushing impeachment for months, asserting in May that “this president must be held accountable and I believe that the Judiciary Committee should begin impeachment inquiries.”
Even a Republican presidential candidate is on board, but he thinks the penalty should be worse than impeachment.
“Talk about pressuring a foreign country to interfere with and control a U.S. election, it couldn’t be clearer. And that’s not just undermining democratic institutions, that is treason,” former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “It’s treason pure and simple. And the penalty for treason under the U.S. Code is death. That’s the only penalty.”
Weld also said that impeachment could be an option. “The penalty under the Constitution is removal from office, and that might look like a pretty good alternative to the president if he could work out a plea deal.”
The Trump campaign quickly condemned Weld’s comments.
“The media’s affliction with Trump Derangement Syndrome [(TDS)] has driven them into an actual discussion of the proposed execution of the president of the United States,” communications director Tim Murtaugh told Fox News. “In severe cases of TDS such as this, immediate consultation with a physician is recommended.”
House Democrats will meet on Tuesday behind closed doors with Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to discuss moving forward with impeachment. Pelosi has so far resisted calls for impeachment, but pressure has grown in the last several weeks, especially after the emergence of the Ukraine story.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that in a July 25 phone call, Trump allegedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “about eight times” to cooperate with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on an investigation into Biden’s son, who worked with a natural gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.
Biden in 2016, meanwhile, reportedly called for the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor who had been investigating allegations about Hunter. At the time, Hunter Biden held a directorship with the company, earning $50,000 a month. There are also allegations that as vice president, Biden threatened to withhold U.S. aid unless the prosecutor was fired.