Sen. Joni Ernst says impeaching Joe Biden was ‘just a hypothetical’
Sen. Joni Ernst said Monday that she was only speaking “hypothetically” when she suggested over the weekend that former Vice President Joe Biden could be impeached over supposed misconduct in Ukraine if he was elected.
“It wasn’t directed specifically at him. But just a hypothetical. I think we have to be judicious as members of Congress, especially when it comes to something so important,” the Iowa Republican told reporters outside the Senate chamber.
Ernst offered her clarification during a break from closing arguments in President Trump’s impeachment trial, which was sparked by Trump asking Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son Hunter.
Hunter Biden had scored a lucrative seat on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was veep and the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine policy.
Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees unless Ukraine fired former top prosecutor Viktor Shokin — whom the US, EU and IMF all wanted gone, believing he was corrupt.
Trump’s defense team said during the trial that the Bidens’ conduct was worthy of investigation, but denied that Trump withheld nearly $400 million in foreign aid to force investigations by Ukraine into the Bidens and Ukraine’s purported role in the 2016 US election.
In a weekend interview, Ernst appeared to say Biden would be targeted by Republicans if he defeated Trump in November.
“I think this door of impeachable whatever has been opened,” Ernst told Bloomberg News.
“Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him.’ ”
Ernst told reporters Monday that her remarks were “taken out of context.”
“The point is that the bar has been lowered so badly by Democrats,” she said.
“Regardless of who it is, you have one person of one party that’s president, you have a Congress of a different party, that they could impeach for whatever the heck they want. That’s what those comments meant.”
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