On the eve of the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) entertained the idea of impeaching Joe Biden if he were to win the presidency in this year’s election during an interview with Bloomberg News Sunday.
Ernst’s latest remarks come on the heels of her controversial comment last week when she wondered aloud to reporters whether the Trump legal team’s Biden-focused arguments in the Senate impeachment trial would influence Democratic Iowa caucus-goers.
“I’m really interested to see how this discussion today informs and influences the Iowa caucus voters, those Democratic caucus-goers,” Ernst said last Monday. “Will they be supporting Vice President Biden at this point?”
In her interview with Bloomberg News Sunday, Ernst suggested that if elected, Biden would run the risk of being impeached by Republicans because “this door of impeachable whatever has been opened.”
“Joe Biden should be very careful what he’s asking for because, you know, we can have a situation where if it should ever be President Biden, that immediately, people, right the day after he would be elected would be saying, ‘Well, we’re going to impeach him,’” Ernst said.
Ernst also told Bloomberg News that Biden would be impeached “for being assigned to take on Ukrainian corruption yet turning a blind eye to Burisma because his son was on the board making over a million dollars a year,” stoking the debunked claim by former Ukraine prosecutor general Viktor Shokin that his investigation into Burisma led to his ouster after then-President Barack Obama sent Biden to Ukraine to fight corruption. Shokin also accused Biden of wanting to protect his son, Hunter, who sat on the company’s board.
Earlier Sunday, Ernst denied on CNN that her remark last week indicates that she’s focused on Biden because he poses the greatest threat to Trump. Ernst then argued that she was “just pointing out that Iowa has very smart voters, very educated caucus-goers” and that “if they’re paying attention to all the dynamics with the candidates, that might be something that they would take into consideration.”
Read Bloomberg News’ interview here.
