Rep. Andy Ogles began an effort Tuesday to impeach Vice President Kamala Harris, initiating the move shortly after she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
Mr. Ogles, Tennessee Republican, accused Ms. Harris of high crimes and misdemeanors for her role as “border czar” in the Biden administration, arguing in his impeachment resolution that she has shown “extraordinary incompetence” in enforcing immigration laws.
“Regardless of where you’re at on the issue of immigration, we have a system that’s broken and as the border czar she was charged with fixing it,” Mr. Ogles told The Washington Times.
The lawmaker’s complaint also charges Ms. Harris for not invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Mr. Biden from office following his dismal debate performance late last month that raised serious questions about his health and cognitive ability.
Mr. Ogles accused the vice president of knowing that Mr. Biden was “cognitively impaired,” but refusing to trigger the steps to boot him from office.
His push to impeach Ms. Harris comes as she has taken over as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president following Mr. Biden’s decision to exit the presidential race over the weekend. As of Monday, Ms. Harris had earned a majority of delegates to clinch the nomination.
SEE ALSO: Trump turns attention from ‘Crooked Joe’ to ‘Lyin Kamala’
The lawmaker’s impeachment pitch was designed to be privileged, meaning that if he wanted to, he could force a vote on the House floor. It adds to the House GOP’s growing list of impeachment charges against Biden administration officials.
Mr. Ogles had hoped to trigger a vote to impeach Ms. Harris before Congress departs Washington next week for the entirety of August, but that timeline could be truncated because of issues with the slate of remaining spending bills.
Republicans had planned to pass all 12 fiscal 2025 spending bills before leaving for their month-and-a-half-long break, and until earlier this month had successfully passed each bill that had been brought forth. But Mr. Ogles noted there were concerns that the plan could fall apart over issues with the measures, and lawmakers could leave by Thursday instead.
“I have a problem with that,” he said. “I think we have appropriations bills to address, and we need to impeach the vice president.”
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.