- Rep. Lauren Boebert tried to force the House to vote on impeaching Joe Biden this week.
- Instead, House Republican leadership convinced her to shelve the effort — for now.
- But what she did is nothing new. One House Democrat used the tactic 3 times during Trump's presidency.
This week, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado tried to force the House to vote on impeaching President Joe Biden over his handling of the southern border — only to have the effort effectively quashed by House Republican leadership.
Rather than vote on Boebert's impeachment resolution itself, the House held a vote on referring it to the House Homeland Security and Judiciary committees, which are not obligated to do anything with the resolution.
Most Republicans viewed Boebert's effort as being too rushed and politically risky, arguing that it would not be appropriate to consider impeaching Biden until ongoing House investigations are resolved.
Boebert, for her part, framed it as a win.
—Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) June 22, 2023
But this isn't the first time a gambit like this has been tried by a rank-and-file House member acting without the approval of party leadership.
Three forced impeachment votes
Rep. Al Green of Texas — a Houston Democrat who's served since 2005 — tried three different times to impeach former President Donald Trump before his own party's leadership was willing to do so.
Each time, the House voted to table his resolutions, and party leaders made clear that they did not support Green's efforts, similarly arguing that impeaching Trump was premature.
"Legitimate questions have been raised about his fitness to lead this nation," said Reps. Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, then the top-two House Democrats, in a joint statement ahead of Green's first forced vote. "Now is not the time to consider articles of impeachment."
Later, Pelosi was even more blunt in her rejection of the idea.
"No, I don't," she said when asked in 2019 if she supported Green's third impeachment effort. "Does that come as a surprise?"
In total, Green's impeachment resolutions included:
- December 2017 — condemning Trump as "unfit to be President" due to a litany of incendiary and extreme statements. 58 House Democrats voted against the motion to table.
- January 2018 — condemning Trump as "unfit to represent the American values of decency and morality" due to his "Muslim ban" and referring to certain countries as "shithole countries." 66 House Democrats voted against the motion to table.
- July 2019 — condemning Trump after he made a series of racist tweets about Democratic House members. 95 House Democrats voted against the motion to table.
Eventually, the House did vote to impeach Trump — twice — including a Democratic-led effort over his attempt to force Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden and a bipartisan vote for incitement of an insurrection following the January 6 assault on the Capitol.
Through a spokesperson, Rep. Green declined to be interviewed for this story.
'Every day for the rest of my time'
Both Boebert and Green offered their impeachment resolutions via "privileged resolutions," which require the House to take procedural action in a relatively short amount of time.
And as House Republicans on the right flank of the party have become more restive in recent weeks — particularly in the wake of a debt ceiling compromise that many hard-right conservatives found unsatisfactory — it appears likely that House conservatives may disrupt regular order more frequently moving forward.
The push to censure Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, though backed by party leadership, also emerged initially as a privileged motion from Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
The idea of impeaching Biden is popular among Republicans: one recent poll from University of Massachusetts Amherst found that 68% of Republicans and Trump voters would like to see Biden impeached.
Boebert, speaking with reporters on Wednesday, made clear that she's willing to force another vote if the House doesn't take up impeachment soon.
"If nothing happens in committee like I'm promised that it will, yes, I will bring a privileged resolution every day for the rest of my time here in Congress," said Boebert.