Not all GOPers onboard with Joe impeachment
N.D. Gov. Burgum drops out of Republican presidential contest
High-profile Republican divisions have emerged over the GOP’s quixotic push to impeach President Biden despite an absence of any direct evidence of presidential wrongdoing.
With newly minted House Speaker Mike Johnson pushing full speed ahead with impeachment, moderate Republicans are warning against the dangers of launching what voters will see as a politically motivated sham impeachment in the middle of a presidential campaign.
Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, not normally known for pulling partisan punches, said the Republican-led House of Representatives should stick to its day job of legislating solutions to everyday American problems.
“(Voters) are more concerned about what’s happening at our border. They’re more concerned about what’s happening with the economy,” DeSantis told NBC News Sunday.
“Make sure you’re not ignoring all these other issues,” DeSantis added. “And don’t use that inquiry as kind of a Trojan horse to not then meet your responsibilities on all these other things.”
Republicans may hold an official House vote as soon as next week to authorize their impeachment inquiry into Biden even as they have failed to come up with a shred of hard proof of ties to the business dealings of presidential son Hunter Biden.
Democrats accused Johnson of using impeachment to placate the far right wing of his caucus.
“Johnson is throwing red meat to … the far right flank of the House GOP by pushing a full House vote on this illegitimate impeachment stunt,” White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement.
Johnson had earlier expressed some caution about the impeachment push and has displayed an unexpected moderate streak in spending negotiations with Democrats.
But he sounded a new gung-ho attitude over impeachment after traveling to Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago resort to kiss the former president’s ring.
Trump has been publicly pushing his Republican allies in Congress for months to impeach Biden in retribution for Democrats’ two impeachments of him.
An impeachment vote at the dawn of the coming presidential campaign year could dramatically backfire on Republicans.
With Rep. George Santos expelled, Republicans hold only a narrow 221-213 majority meaning Johnson could likely only afford to lose three GOP votes to get a green light for impeachment.
Many of the GOP lawmakers representing swing suburban districts that Biden won in 2020 would rather Republicans talk about kitchen table issues or border security rather than a tangled probe that seems to have unearthed little more than salacious dirt on Hunter Biden’s struggles with drug addiction.
Democrats deride the inquiry as an effort to detract attention from former Trump’s legal challenges and turn a negative spotlight on Biden.
Only three other presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Trump, who was impeached twice.
The Clinton impeachment, which centered on his lies about an extramarital affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, blew up in Republicans’ faces and Bill Clinton left office at a peak of popularity.
Doug Burgum Monday ended his long shot Republican presidential bid as the slimmed-down field of remaining contenders prepares for a crucial debate set for Wednesday.
The folksy North Dakota governor and tech billionaire said he was proud to bring his small-town Midwest businessman’s values to the GOP race.
“We launched our campaign with a cleareyed mission: Bring a business leader and proven governor’s voice to fight for the best of America,” Burgum tweeted. “We will always remain committed to fighting for that.”
Burgum won the most attention for doling out free $20 gift cards to donors as a way of gaming the requirements to score a place on the GOP debate stage earlier in the race.
He scored some attention on the day of the first debate when he injured his leg playing basketball and showed up limping for the contest.
Burgum was already ruled out of contention for the debate Wednesday, which is shaping up as a high-stakes matchup between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis as they vie to be the primary contender to front-runner former President Donald Trump.
Haley has been rising in polls for months now, heightening the pressure on DeSantis to come up with a sparkling debate performance as the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus looms just six weeks away.
Vivek Ramaswamy will also be on the stage. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the harshest critic of Trump, was still on the bubble Monday as organizers will decide if he has met the requirement to reach at least 6% in two polls.
A 61-year-old man is accused of beating a fellow homeless man to death with a plastic milk crate at a Brooklyn encampment, just a few months after he attacked the victim with a bottle, police said Monday.
Raul Hernandez was out on supervised release when he delivered a brutal, fatal beating to Carlos Mejia, 52, about 1 p.m. on Friday during a drunken argument at their encampment on a handball court on the Brooklyn side of Highland Park, according to cops.
He also stabbed Mejia in the leg, according to a criminal complaint. Medics rushed the victim to Brookdale University Hospital, where he later died.
Hernandez was charged Saturday with murder and weapons possession, police said.
An autopsy determined that Mejia died from the beating and stabbing, as well as from complications from cirrhosis, according to the complaint.
The killing may have been retaliation for a previous fight, cops said.
Hernandez had been busted for an assault on Mejia on Aug. 21. According to prosecutors, he kicked the victim in the back at the same park, near Jamaica Ave. and Cleveland St. in Cypress Hills, then bashed his head with a glass bottle, puncturing Mejia’s hands and arms with the broken glass.
A woman who lives nearby told the Daily News on Friday that the two men and a third man “argued sometimes about territory, who got to sleep where.” Her husband, who like his wife declined to give his name, said he quaffed some beers with the victim and suspect earlier in the day.
“Me and my wife used to bring them food and drink beer, have a good time. I was with them earlier and we were just hanging out,” said the man. “When I came back, I saw the police tape and one of them was dead.”
Hernandez, who was arrested under the name Jose Salazar, was charged with felony assault and other offenses. Prosecutors asked that bail be set, but Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Patrick Hayes Torres placed him on supervised release.
In June, Hernandez was hit with various charges after allegedly stealing someone’s bottle-return voucher and hitting the victim in the head with a bottle. Even with an assault rap, none of the charges against him were deemed bail-eligible.
According to court records he failed to show up for court in the June and August cases, leading to bench warrants for his rearrest.
Hernandez was ordered held without bail at his arraignment in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Saturday. His lawyer declined to comment Monday.