Republican planning impeachment articles against Biden over Israel weapons hold

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is prepping articles of impeachment against President Biden after he warned that the U.S. will stop supplying offensive weapons to Israel if its forces launch an invasion into Rafah.

Mills, a first-year lawmaker, unveiled his impeachment resolution Thursday, which charges Biden with abuse of power, and he said he plans to “pursue action” Friday.

His announcement on the social platform X came less than 24 hours after Biden, during an interview with CNN, said the U.S. would withhold weapons like bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it ignores U.S. warnings to refrain from a full-scale operation in the southern Gaza city.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to follow through despite warnings from the U.S. and other allies, arguing the move into Rafah is essential to defeating what’s left of Hamas.

Mills in his resolution accuses Biden of committing a quid pro quo, equating Biden’s handling of Rafah to the circumstances surrounding the first impeachment of former President Trump, who allegedly withheld weapons to Ukraine over demands for dirt on his political rivals.

The House in 2019 impeached Trump on two articles. Mills said his resolution utilizes language from Rep. Jerrold Nadler’s (D-N.Y.) impeachment articles against Trump.

“Quid Pro Joe,” he wrote on X.

A White House official slammed Mills’s effort, calling it “ridiculous” in a statement to The Hill.

“Senior administration officials had already made multiple public statements about Rafah similar to the President’s, including that we are also ensuring Israel gets every dollar appropriated in the supplemental,” the official said. “Trump failed to spend dollars appropriated by Congress that he was legally required to spend. This is about a purchase made by a foreign government and our decision whether to deliver that purchase right now, which could enable an operation we’ve publicly and privately objected to.”

Mills’s gambit is the latest attempt by Republicans to impeach Biden. A trio of House committees are currently running a multipronged impeachment inquiry into Biden, largely focused on his family’s business dealings. House Republicans formalized that probe in a vote in December.

In June, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) moved to force a vote on her resolution to impeach Biden over his handling of the situation at the southern border. House Republicans, however, ended up voting to refer the articles to a pair of committees, shielding the chamber from having to weigh in on the charges directly.

Biden’s warning shot to Israel this week has sparked sharp criticism from Republicans. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said the move would be “devastating.”

“This idea of withholding weapons to Israel as a condition of somehow, you know, Joe Biden wanting to micromanage their war effort over there, their defensive effort, is catastrophic policy,” he said Thursday morning on Fox News.

“It would be devastating to our closest ally in the region, and it would go directly against the will of what the members of this body voted on just several days ago.”

This story was updated at 8:58 p.m.