House Republicans, led by Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.), are preparing impeachment articles against President Joe Biden in response to his threat to halt U.S. offensive aid to Israel if the country proceeds with a ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. The move has sparked a political firestorm, with GOP lawmakers accusing Biden of engaging in a "quid pro quo" situation similar to the one that led to the Democrats' first impeachment of former President Donald Trump over his handling of Ukraine aid.
In a statement to Fox News, Mills drew parallels between Biden's actions and the allegations made against Trump, stating, "The House has no choice but to impeach President 'Quid pro Joe' Biden. As Vice President, Biden was caught threatening to withhold funding and aid to Ukraine unless they fired the attorney general investigating Burisma, a company financially benefiting his son Hunter, not to mention the 10% share for 'the big guy' himself."
The first-term lawmaker continued, "Now, Joe Biden is pressuring Israel, our biggest ally in the Middle East, by pausing their funding that has already been approved in the House, if they don't stop all operations with Hamas. It's a very clear message, 'this for that.'"
Biden's high-stakes ultimatum to Israel's government, delivered in a CNN interview that aired Wednesday night, has sent shockwaves through US and Israeli politics and around the world. The president stated that while Israel would continue to receive U.S. support for its defensive systems, such as the Iron Dome, "if they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, that deal with that problem."
The remarks have prompted a flurry of backlash from Republicans and some moderate Democrats, with several GOP lawmakers voicing support for impeaching Biden over the decision. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) called on the House to open an immediate impeachment inquiry, arguing that Biden was motivated by political reasons to appease radical leftists and Hamas sympathizers ahead of the 2024 election.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) told Fox News Digital, "The Democrats made their bed, and now they're [lying] in it. This is just the latest on a long list of reasons to impeach Biden, including the deadline withdrawal in Afghanistan and allowing more than 9 million illegal immigrants to invade our southern border."
While it is highly unlikely for the impeachment push to reach the level of a Senate trial, given the ongoing impeachment inquiry into Biden still searching for smoking gun evidence, the move highlights the sky-high tensions that have taken over Washington amid Israel's war on Hamas following the terrorist group's Oct. 7 attack.
The White House, in response to the impeachment threat, referred Fox News to remarks made by White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby, who stated, "The president and his team have been clear for several weeks that we do not support a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere safe to go."
Kirby added, "We propose alternative methods of defeating Hamas that do not involve a major ground operation in Rafah. Those conversations with the Israeli government are ongoing. The president said yesterday that if Israel in fact proceeds with a major ground operation in Rafah, he will not provide certain categories of weapons to support such an operation. The Israeli government has understood this for some time now."
Biden's warning has taken his trial of strength with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to its most intense level yet, with the US fearing that a full-scale Israeli incursion into densely populated Rafah would cause civilian casualties on an unprecedented scale. The civilian carnage in the Gaza war has already generated outrage globally and extreme pressure on Biden at home, threatening to splinter his Democratic coalition as he wages a neck-and-neck reelection campaign against Donald Trump.
The president's stance has also put him at odds with Netanyahu, who sees the eradication of Hamas as a matter of political survival. The critical political interests of the two leaders, both of whose hold on office is threatened by the war, are diverging, leading to a tectonic shift in the US-Israel relationship.
