Pennsylvania State Lawmaker Calls for Impeachment of Gov. Tom Wolf

Pennsylvania State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe (R) of Butler County is slated to propose a resolution calling for the impeachment of Gov. Tom Wolf (D), contending that the governor has “violated a number of our God-given rights affirmed in the United States Constitution.”

Metcalfe sent a memo to colleagues on Friday, asking them to cosponsor his measure to impeach the governor over his administration’s response to the coronavirus in the Keystone State. In the memo, Metcalfe states that Wolf’s order “mandating the closure of physical locations of all businesses that he has deemed ‘non-life sustaining’ has violated our citizens’ rights in many devastating ways.”

“His order constitutes a taking of property from business owners without just compensation. The lack of due process and judicial review permitted under his order also violates the Constitution,” he said, adding that the stay-at-home order has violated Pennsylvanians’ rights to free speech and assembly.

The Butler County Republican also told colleagues that the Wolf administration has lacked transparency “as agencies under his control have stopped responding to requests for records and his office has refused to provide vital information” — a reference to the shadowy business waiver program allowing certain nonessential businesses to apply for exemptions to operate while the stay-at-home order remains in place. The Department of Community and Economic Development only granted waivers to 6,123 businesses, and the administration has yet to provide the criteria used to determine which businesses were granted waivers.

“His delays and obfuscation have been, and continue to be, entirely unacceptable,” Metcalfe said.

He continued:

His failure to adequately administer our unemployment compensation system has made it so that countless Pennsylvanians who have recently become unemployed due to his orders have been unable to collect the benefits they require to meet their basic needs.
His focus on restraining business is particularly disturbing, as the majority of deaths due to the pandemic have been residents of long-term care facilities. The governor should have focused his attention there, but he has entirely failed to implement a comprehensive state plan to protect our most vulnerable citizens who reside in nursing homes, which have had inadequate supplies of Personal Protective Equipment and testing kits throughout the outbreak.

As Gov. Wolf has violated so many of our fundamental rights as citizens of the Commonwealth, I will be introducing a resolution impeaching the governor and exhibiting Articles of Impeachment to the Senate. His actions plainly constitute the misbehavior in office required for his impeachment under the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The governor “must be held accountable for his actions that have harmed so many of our citizens and violated so many of our rights,” the state lawmaker added. “No individual or office is above the law.”

Rumblings of Wolf impeachment talk began bubbling up this week after the governor threatened counties and businesses that signaled they would move forward with reopening in violation of his orders.

Thirty Pennsylvania counties remain under Wolf’s stay-at-home order. On Friday, the governor announced that twelve more could move to the yellow phase next Friday, leaving 18 under the most restrictive red phase, which bars nonessential businesses from operating.