Several conservative Republicans pushed back Wednesday on calls for President Barack Obama's impeachment.
"Harry Reid's going to block anything we do in that regard," Georgia Rep. Paul Broun told
The Hill on Wednesday.
Broun, a four-term congressman, said in February that he would vote to impeach Obama.
"There are a number of colleagues that would like to see an impeachment proceeding go forward against the president," he said. "I'm not sure our leadership would allow that to happen ... we've got to focus on what we can do."
Louisiana Rep. John Fleming told the Hill: "We'd like to do more, the problem is the avenues are just not available. Even if impeachment was to pass in the House, it wouldn't remove the president from office.
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"It's one of those things that if you can't see an end solution, why even get into that debate?" Fleming asked.
The conservatives said that any impeachment effort would die in the Democratic-controlled Senate and would backfire against Republicans in the November congressional elections.
Their comments also appeared to support House Speaker John Boehner and other mainstream Republicans who have resisted calls for impeachment.
"I disagree," Boehner said in response to a reporter's question on whether he supported former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's call on Tuesday for Obama's impeachment,
The Washington Post reports.
The House will, however, vote this month on whether to bring a lawsuit against Obama over his use of executive actions.
In a commentary for Breitbart, Palin said: "Enough is enough of the years of abuse from this president. His unsecured border crisis is the last straw that makes the battered wife say, 'no mas.'"
Two U.S. presidents, Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, were impeached by the House. Both were acquitted in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is required to convict and remove a president from office. The Senate vote on Johnson was one vote short of conviction.
In the fall 1998 midterm elections, the GOP lost seats — a rare happening for a party that does not control the White House — amid concerns about Clinton's impeachment and charges of overzealousness by Democrats.
For their part, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee cited Palin's comments in a fundraising email on Tuesday, the Hill reports, calling her comments and the lawsuit "ugly attacks on President Obama's legitimacy."
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