Articles of impeachment were filed against Kamala Harris on Tuesday, July 23, the same day she held her first official rally as prospective Democratic nominee for president. This is the third time such action has been taken against the vice president. Only this time, she is accused of covering up President Joe Biden’s mental health issues.
Articles of Impeachment Against Kamala Harris
This newest filing by Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN) expands on previously introduced articles that accused Harris of not securing the border. The initial articles were filed on June 12, 2023, and referenced Harris as the “border czar” in charge of cleaning up the immigration crisis. “In all of this, Kamala Devi Harris willfully and systematically refused to uphold the immigration laws, failed to control the border to the detriment of national security, compromised public safety, and violated the rule of law, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”
The new second article claims the vice president covered up President Biden’s cognitive decline, calling it a “breach of public trust.” The filing states, “Kamala Devi Harris has knowingly misled the people of the United States and the Congress of the United States, principally to obfuscate the physical and cognitive well-being of the President of the United States, Joe Biden.”
Ogles released a statement on his campaign page calling for Harris to invoke the 25th Amendment against Biden:
“Kamala Harris has betrayed the trust of the public by failing to exercise her sworn duty to employ the provisions of the 25th Amendment to remove President Biden from office when it became apparent that he was mentally and physically incapable of continuing to serve. For these reasons alone, immediate action should be taken to impeach her.”
Next week, Congress will go on its break and be gone through August. Ogles hopes to have a vote on the impeachment articles before they leave, but fiscal 2025 spending bills need to be dealt with first. “Mr. Ogles noted there were concerns that the plan could fall apart over issues with the measures, and lawmakers could leave by Thursday instead,” The Washington Times reported. “I have a problem with that,” Ogles told The Times. “I think we have appropriations bills to address, and we need to impeach the vice president.”
To date, no US vice president has been successfully impeached, although a few have gone through impeachment inquiries, some even requesting it themselves. In 1826, VP John C. Calhoun asked for a probe concerning allegations that he had profited from a contract while he was Secretary of War. He was acquitted.
In 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew petitioned for an investigation that was denied by Speaker of the House Carl Albert. Agnew had been accused of receiving bribes from construction companies when he was governor of Maryland. Albert rejected the request so they could focus on an inquiry against President Richard Nixon regarding Watergate. Agnew resigned on October 10, 1973, after reaching a plea bargain relating to tax evasion.
In 2007, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) filed an impeachment resolution against Vice President Dick Cheney. There were three charges, including deceiving the public and Congress regarding alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The resolution timed out.
Trump Files Complaint
The articles of impeachment are not the only thing Harris has to be concerned about. Also on Tuesday, Donald Trump’s campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission saying the vice president’s campaign violated federal campaign laws by replacing Biden’s name with Harris’ name to take control of the funds. Trump’s campaign’s general counsel, David Warrington, claimed the Biden campaign could not simply rename its committee from “Biden for President” to “Harris for President” and roll over $91 million after the president dropped out of the race.
“This is little more than a thinly veiled $91.5m excessive contribution from one presidential candidate to another, that is, from Joe Biden’s old campaign to Kamala Harris’ new campaign. This effort makes a mockery of our campaign finance laws,” the eight-page complaint read. “Federal candidates are prohibited from keeping contributions for elections in which they do not participate. Biden for President 2024 has shown no intention to properly refund or re-designate the general election funds it has already received. This makes them all excess contributions.”
The Harris campaign said in a statement that they had raised $100 million in donations since Biden withdrew from the race and that the complaint was “Baseless legal claims – like the ones they’ve made for years to try to suppress votes and steal elections – will only distract them.”
