Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said Tuesday that Democrats only want to “further divide the nation” by impeaching President Donald Trump so close to the end of his administration.
Ernst told reporters she does not think it would be constitutional for Democrats to impeach the 45th president after he leaves office Wednesday.
She asked rhetorically, “My overall question is: Why are we doing this when the president is out of office tomorrow?” Ernst told reporters in the Capitol.
Ernst then said she does not believe it would be constitutional to impeach the president.
The Iowa Republican urged President-elect Joe Biden to move forward and warned Democrats only want to divide the nation further.
“I’ve read arguments on both sides, but he’s not our president after tomorrow. So the only reason I can see is that Democrats want to further divide the nation. And [I’m] asking President-elect Joe Biden, ‘Please, let’s move forward,'” she said.
Other Republicans such as Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Tim Scott (R-SC) have raised questions over the constitutionality of impeaching a former president. They have also warned doing so would create a deeper partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats.
“We just have to move forward, and they could have done other types of procedures in the House,” Ernst said.
“They chose to move forward with impeachment. We need to start healing; I don’t think this does that,” she added.
Ernst said Congress’ upper chamber will still consider the House Democrats’ arguments for impeaching Trump. The Senate’s rules force the chamber to hold an impeachment trial after the House sends the article of impeachment to the Senate.
She said, “Always listen to the arguments. We should always do that. The bottom line, is it constitutional?”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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