Amid calls for Joe Biden’s resignation and impeachment over his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, marked by the death of 13 U.S. military service members, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has given Biden an assurance of benevolent treatment by shooting down impeachment demands from within the Republican caucus.
Asked at an event in Kentucky if Biden’s actions with regard to Afghanistan merit impeachment and if McConnell would support it, the GOP leader responded, “Well, look, the president is not going to be removed from office. There’s a Democratic House, a narrowly Democratic Senate. That’s not going to happen.”
“There isn’t going to be an impeachment,” he added.
Republicans in the chamber, such as Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Rick Scott (Fla.) have called for Biden’s removal, Graham via impeachment and Scott through the 25th Amendment, under which a majority of the Cabinet or a body appointed by Congress may remove the president.
Meanwhile, Senators Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have both called on Biden to resign.
McConnell has brushed off impeachment calls before. Asked last month if he agreed with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who filed three impeachment articles, that Biden should be impeached, McConnell replied “no.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has also refrained from calling for Biden’s impeachment, although he has predicted that a Republican-controlled House would investigate Biden’s Afghanistan pullout and that there would be a “day of reckoning.”
For McConnell, the way to hold Biden accountable is by electing more Republicans to Congress.
“The report card you get is every two years,” he said. “I think the way these behaviors get adjusted in this country is at the ballot box.”
He expressed confidence that Republicans would retake the House and flip the minimum of one seat necessary to regain control of the Senate.
“I do think we’re likely to see a typical kind of midterm reaction to a new administration…. Typically there is some buyer’s remorse,” the minority leader stated.
As Politico has noted, Biden and McConnell, despite being on opposite sides of the political aisle, have forged a close working relationship over the years:
And perhaps most importantly, Biden and McConnell have a real relationship — forged over the years as Senate colleagues and combatants. McConnell was the only Senate Republican to attend the funeral for Biden’s son Beau in 2015, and he’s largely stayed away from GOP attacks on Biden’s other son, Hunter.
“They have negotiated big things before. They’ve come through some very hard and even bitter fights over judicial confirmations,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, said in an interview. “But I think they’ve managed to stay friends or have a working, professional relationship even in the hardest of times.”…
McConnell referred to Biden on Wednesday as his “old friend.” And he paid public tribute to Biden during a 2016 speech just before the vice president left office, calling him a “trusted partner.” In 2011, Biden appeared at the McConnell Center in Kentucky, observing that the audience wants “to see whether or not a Republican and Democrat really like one another. Well, I’m here to tell you we do.”
Prior to Biden taking office, McConnell said he would treat the Democrat better than Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) treated Donald Trump.
“I told him that while we disagree on a lot of things, there are things we can work together on. We’ve always been straight with one another. And we agreed to get together sooner than later. And I’m looking forward to working with him,” McConnell said of Biden.
The death of 13 servicemen in Afghanistan convinced a number of Republicans to finally call for Biden’s removal. But the list of offenses arguably meriting impeachment and arrest is long.
There’s the mounting evidence, despite the “official” media narrative, that Biden only won the election due to mass voter fraud in the first place. There are his family’s myriad business ties to Communist China, which conveniently coincide with his policies that give the Chinese greater access to America’s economy and society.
Of course, McConnell himself is heavily financially tied to China. The family of his wife, Elaine Chao, owns a shipbuilding company that is contracted by the Chinese government. Author Peter Schweizer explained that the only “reason they’re doing business with them, let’s make it clear, is because Mitch McConnell is a very powerful figure in Washington, D.C.”
It’s no surprise then, that McConnell goes soft on Biden. They’re both working for the same master.
