CORRECTION, June 23, 2023: If President Joe Biden were impeached and removed from office, Vice President Kamala Harris would become president under the 25th Amendment. She would then choose a new vice president. An earlier version of this article misstated what would occur in that situation.
Congressional committees will now look at articles of impeachment against the incumbent president after a vote on Thursday.
Voting along party lines, the House voted 219-208 to push forward the impeachment case against President Joe Biden.
According to the Associated Press, the articles of impeachment were spearheaded by Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert.
The AP notes that Boebert’s move to impeach Biden “caught Republicans off guard.”
The incumbent president has been charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors” based on the way Biden and his administration have handled the current crisis at the Southern border.
You can watch the vote itself below:
219-208: The House votes along party lines to send Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) resolution to impeach President Biden over his immigration policies to the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees. pic.twitter.com/pp3RPsnndK
— The Recount (@therecount) June 22, 2023
The final results of the party-line voting mean that, not unlike any other bill, the articles of impeachment will now move forward to the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees for review.
The AP framed the committee reviews as something of a stalling tactic for Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, who reportedly wants to avoid such calls for impeachment from moving even further forward.
Boebert described the House vote as a “historic action,” though AP also noted that neither of the two committees had an “obligation to act.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are furiously complaining about all of it.
“Today they’re dishonoring this House and dishonoring themselves by bringing to the floor this ridiculous impeachment referral resolution,” Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern said.
McGovern added that he felt that former President Donald Trump was putting up his staunchest Republican allies to the task for little more reason than to hurt Biden.
“This body has become a place where extreme, outlandish and nutty issues get debated passionately, and important ones not at all,” McGovern said.
McGovern, not mincing words, added: “In short, the Republican Party is a joke.”
Curiously, McGovern’s reaction largely mirrors that of conservatives and Republicans who feel that the indictment of former President Donald Trump is also “a joke.”
Many within that sphere feel that the 37 charges against Trump are largely spurious and weaponized.
Should these articles of impeachment move forward and Biden be removed from office, Vice President Kamala Harris would become president under the 25th Amendment. She would then choose her vice president.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
