Clinton: GOP’s impeachment threat ‘pathetic’

by Bradford Richardson - 10/23/15 7:21 PM ET

Democratic primary front-runner Hillary Clinton says a Republican lawmaker’s threats to impeach her before she’s even in office are “laughable” and “pathetic.”

“It’s so totally ridiculous,” Clinton told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Friday.

{mosads}“Perhaps it is good politics with the, you know, the — the most intense, extreme part of their base,” she added. “I guess that is, or otherwise why would they be doing it?”

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) floated the idea of impeachment if Clinton wins the White House in an interview with The Hill earlier this week.

Brooks said she “would be subject to impeachment,” adding that “should the House and Senate so choose, she could be impeached based on offenses, high crimes and misdemeanors, that she has in all probability already committed.”

Brooks cited federal law that prohibits “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material,” referring to the private email server Clinton held while secretary of State that contained information labeled “Top Secret.”

Clinton also justified her decision to break with the Obama administration and support a no-fly zone in Syria.

“Part of the reason I have proposed a no-fly zone as a coalition effort, not a United States effort, is to have conversations with the Russians at the table,” Clinton said.

“I think the no-fly zone, which the Turks have asked for for a long time and humanitarian organizations have, is a device as well as a potential outcome to see how we get people to the table.”

The former first lady also defended her record on civil rights, saying the Defense of Marriage Act, which her husband President Clinton signed into law, was a “defensive action” to prevent a constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage.

“On Defense of Marriage, I think what my husband and I believed – and there was certainly evidence to support it – is that there was enough political momentum to amend the Constitution of the United States, and that there had to be some way to stop that,” Clinton said.

Tags Hillary Clinton Mo Brooks Rachel Maddow