Republicans in Wisconsin are threatening to impeach a recently elected state Supreme Court justice and raised the possibility of doing the same to the state’s election director.

A Georgia Republican called for impeaching the Fulton County prosecutor who brought racketeering charges against former President Donald Trump. Republicans in the Pennsylvania House have already impeached the top prosecutor in Philadelphia.

None of the targets met the bar traditionally set for impeachment — credible allegations of committing a crime while in office. Their offense: staking out positions legislative Republicans didn’t like.

As Republicans in Congress begin their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, the process is calling attention to the increasing use of impeachment in the states as a partisan political weapon rather than as a step of last resort for officeholders believed to have committed a serious offense.

  • flossdaily@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That headline makes it sound like both sides are doing this. That’s just simply untrue.

    Democrats impeached Trump twice for high crimes that they could clearly articulate, and for which there was abundant evidence in the public record. There was even limited bipartisan support for both of these.

    Republicans are the only ones who are weaponizing baseless impeachments.

    • WarmSoda
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      1 year ago

      They’re children that learned a new word, so they’re using it in every sentence.

      • nilloc@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        They’re children fascists that learned a new word unwritten rules don’t matter, so they’re using it in every sentence to subvert democracy.

    • spider@lemmy.nz
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      1 year ago

      Republicans are the only ones who are weaponizing baseless impeachments.

      They’re apparently trying to normalize impeachment so that it’s not regarded as seriously as it once was.

      More validation for Trump, basically.

      • Kleinbonum@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        They’re doing two things:

        • They’re trying to make Trump’s impeachments appear less severe than they were, and
        • Use impeachments to remove democratically elected officials from office without cause.
    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, but “both sides”. We need to be “objective” here and strive for “balance”. Pointing out the party obviously behaving badly is so UNFAIR.

  • Wrench@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Yep. Republicans forced a groundless recall vote on Newsom that cost the state $200m. Party of fiscal responsibility my ass.

    • Unaware7013@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      They’re only ‘fiscally responsible’ when they’re not in charge and someone wants to spend money on something other than the MIC and their donors. When they’re in charge, anything for killing people and making rich people even richer is somehow ‘fiscally responsible’ then.

    • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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      Not really, going after the guilty parties and putting them in jail are the first step. That’s happening a little. Going right to violence always seems like someone from outside the states trying to influence the US.

        • SoylentBlake
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          I’m with you my man. Let them discourse and lead from the high road.

          I’ve seen too much filth to ever be clean again. I’ll be with you, on the streets, in the thick of it. Guarding their rear while also getting my revenge. Heather was a harbinger, and if they have their way, none of us get thru this alive.

          What they don’t plan for tho, is large segments of us have already come to terms with that. When we’re all priced out of the remnants of our last stripped out modest dreams…then we’re all already walking dead men. No future either way, seems to me, might as well make them pay.

            • SoylentBlake
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              1 year ago

              The only part of our society that hasn’t let me down is NASA.

              Every other public sector and service has been enshitified long ago. Neoliberalism changed the attitude of government purpose. No longer ensuring a playing field where all actors are bound by the same rules, no longer concerned with helping to build strong, intelligent self sufficient citizenry.

              Now it’s only the dollar. And whomever stabs the person next to them in the back to take it.

              Make no mistake, this attitude is from the top down. Globalism allowed companies to become as powerful, if not more powerful, than almost all governments. And those shareholders? They’ll sacrifice all of us before they let go a shred of money they didn’t lift a finger for.

              At least there’s a nobel purpose for us

              Revenging.

              Time to clean the gene pool.

          • PeleSpirit@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            I think you need to take a step back and think about the fact that I heard the same things coming out of the January 6th people the night before. I was on public freakout watching the airplane videos calling for justice and singing patriotic things. I’m not being idealistic, I’m telling you that if this shit worked, we’d have trump as president right now. So thankfully it doesn’t work. We have to get good people in government and shitty people out. We are seeing desperation from the GOP which is going to get really bad before it hopefully gets better. Trump was voted out, very few he’s endorsed have been elected, we are winning some of the court cases. Violence isn’t the answer because that just results in more violence. It’s the very last option.

    • treefrog
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      It’s not fine in WI, though there is a lot of politics at play that may make it turn out okay.

      The WI GoP has a super majority and can easily impeach our new justice. They might choose not to. Because it’s bad optics for those few that care about those things. But the speaker or whatever position Vos has, is pushing pretty hard for it.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Over the past two years, Republicans also have sought to pry Democrats and nonpartisan executives from office through recalls, legislative maneuvers and forced removals, even when no allegations of wrongdoing have surfaced.

    On Friday, the state’s Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to the gerrymandered maps on a partisan 4-3 vote, with the new justice declining to step aside, thereby increasing the chances of an impeachment.

    A panel of lower-court judges split on the legality of impeaching Krasner, who was reelected overwhelmingly in 2021, but issued a lead opinion casting doubt on the charges.

    It said they failed to meet the constitutional requirement that reserves impeachment for “misbehavior in office.” The state Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments in the case for late November.

    After Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis brought charges against Trump and 18 others for trying to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, some state legislative and congressional Republicans called for the Legislature to impeach her.

    Gavin Newsom handily defeated a 2021 recall attempt staged by Republicans, who have not won a statewide office in years and based their campaign on the governor’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic.


    The original article contains 1,203 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!