At a town hall in Oklahoma, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) called the Obama administration lawless and warned that the president is getting, “perilously close to impeachment.”
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In response to a question about impeachment, Sen. Coburn said:
Well, it’s the House of Representatives and the Judiciary Committee. What you have to do is establish the criteria for proceedings against the president, and that’s called impeachment. It’s not something you take lightly, and you have to use a historical precedent of what that means.
I think there’s some intended violation of law in this administration, but I also think there’s a ton of incompetence. Of people who are making decisions, you know in Homeland Security, 15 of the top 17 posts are empty. And I would just tell you the general portion of the nominees are absolutely incompetent….Those are serious things, but we’re in serious times. I don’t have the legal background to know if that rises to high crimes and misdemeanors, but I think they are getting perilously close to impeachment.
The woman who asked the question was certain that she wanted Obama impeached, but she had no idea what impeachment was or how it worked. Coburn had to explain to her how the impeachment process works. Her lack of knowledge might be forgivable if Republicans hadn’t spent the latter part of the 1990’s impeaching and trying to remove President Clinton from office.
Sen. Coburn admitted that he doesn’t know what a high crime or misdemeanor is, but he is certain that President Obama is getting very close to it. Notice how the Republican audience applauded when the question was asked, but also how Tom Coburn couldn’t name one high crime of misdemeanor that President Obama has actually committed.
The constant drumming up of scandals whether it is Benghazi or the IRS all ties back to the Republican obsession with finding something, anything that they could use as justification for impeaching Obama.
Sen. Coburn didn’t bother to tell his clueless constituent that with Democrats controlling the Senate, there is a less than zero chance that even if he was impeached, President Obama would ever be removed from office. Best not to overload her small mind with unnecessary details like facts and reality.
President Obama hasn’t violated the Constitution. The president hasn’t done anything wrong, and Republicans don’t have a leg to stand on. However, none of this actually matters to people like Tom Coburn, who are more than willing to put on a show for the folks back home.
No matter how much Republicans pretend, being president while black is still not a high crime or a misdemeanor.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
