HOUSE SPEAKER BOEHNER SAYS REPUBLICAN TALK OF IMPEACHMENT IS "ALL A SCAM"

Speaker John Boehner (R-OH): "This whole talk about impeachment is coming from the president's own staff and coming from Democrats on Capitol Hill. Why? Because they are trying to rally their people to give money and to show up in this year's election," Boehner told reporters Tuesday morning. "We have no plans to impeach the president. We have no future plans." [Washington Post, 7/29/14]

...BUT RECKLESS COMMENTS MADE BY HIS OWN PARTY PROVE OTHERWISE

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK):  Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview Thursday with "The Rusty Humphries Show" that impeachment would become an issue soon over the "greatest cover-up in American history." "People may be starting to use the I-word before too long," Inhofe said. "The I-word meaning impeachment?" Humphries asked. "Yeah," Inhofe responded. [The Hill, 5/10/13]

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK): According to Tulsa World, at a convention in Muskogee, Okla., Coburn said Wednesday that the president was "getting perilously close" to the Constitutional standard for impeachment. He also called the Obama administration lawless and incompetent, the news site reported, although he acknowledged the president as a "personal friend." [Politico, 8/22/13]

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC): "It's going to be impossible for them to flow prisoners out of Gitmo now without a huge backlash," Graham said. "There will be people on our side calling for his impeachment if he did that." [The Hill, 6/4/14]

Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC): "There are a lot of things people say, 'Are you going to impeach the president over that?' - No. But this? This is catastrophic," continued Scott. "This jeopardizes the credibility of our nation if one man can usurp the entire system set up by our founding fathers over something this significant." [Huffington Post, 7/6/11]

Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA): "Not a day goes by when people don't talk to us about impeachment. I don't know what rises to that level yet, but I know that there's a mounting frustration that a lot of people are getting to and I think Congress is going to start looking at it very seriously." [Huffington Post, 7/16/14]

Rep. Steve King (R-IA): Appearing on Breitbart News Saturday with co-hosts Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon and Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, King said that if Obama "completely destroys the rule of law with the stroke of a pen" and "Congress fails to act," there will be "enough Republicans who didn't have a desire to do this" that will be "immediately activated" to consider impeachment. [Breitbart, 7/26/14]

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX): In a "WND exclusive," the rightwing site reported that after Stockman toured a border crossing at the Rio Grande on Friday, he realized, "President Obama is begging to be impeached." [Salon, 7/27/14]

Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX): "I think [President Obama has] abused his power, but at the end of the day you have to say, if the House decides to impeach him, if the House had an impeachment vote, it would probably impeach the president," the Texas Republican said at a town hall yesterday. [National Review, 9/6/13]

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA): "If House leadership brought an impeachment vote before the floor, then there would certainly be good reason for doing so, with substantive information and evidence to impeach the President. With the President repeatedly bypassing Congress through executive order, lying to the American people on Obamacare, and failing to address what really happened in Benghazi, I can understand why this would be an important issue to many Georgians right now." [Huffington Post, 2/3/14]

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-FL): "Our President, Mr. Obama, should be impeached on the grounds of: 1. Breaking his oath to uphold the Constitution. 2.  Attacking a non-threatening country. 3.  We are a sovereign Nation and do not take commands from the U.N. or  NATO. 4.  Not responding within the required 60 days to inform and justify to Congress why he used the War Powers Act  (which is reserved for National emergency and threats to our country by foreign invaders when Congress is convened). 5.  Creating and passage of the proven unconstitutional Affordable Patient Health Care Act. 6. The unconstitutional Nationalization of GM and Chrysler." [Ted Yoho.com, 6/17/11]

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX): When one attendee suggested that the House push for impeachment proceedings against President Obama to obstruct the president from pushing his agenda, Burgess was receptive. "It needs to happen, and I agree with you it would tie things up," Burgess said. "No question about that." [Star-Telegram, 8/9/11]

Rep. Kerry Bentivolio (R-MI): Rather, Mr. Bentivolio told constituents, it is to put in motion the impeachment of President Obama. "If I could write that bill and submit it, it would be a dream come true," he said this month. [NYT, 8/24/13]

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX):  October 13: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) indicates that a debt default would be "an impeachable offense" by the president. [Washington Post, 7/29/14]

Former Rep. Allen West (R-FL): Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that Barack Hussein Obama's unilateral negotiations with terrorists and the ensuing release of their key leadership without consult - mandated by law - with the U.S. Congress represents high crimes and misdemeanors, an impeachable offense. [Allen B West.com, 6/3/14]

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday that President Obama has "committed impeachable offenses" and that the House could hold a hearing to impeach. "We can have an impeachment hearing in the House, and in my mind the president has committed impeachable offenses," Bachmann told conservative talk show host Rusty Humphries in an interview first detailed by Right Wing Watch. [The Hill, 10/9/13]

Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX): Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) was somewhat more sympathetic to the idea but even he opposed initiating impeachment proceedings "right now," arguing that the House is too busy to get to it. "The president deserves to be impeached. Plain and simple," he said. "But ... we have so much on our plate that it's not practical." [MSNBC, 7/16/14]

Former Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK): "President Obama's rewarding of lawlessness, including his own, is the foundational problem here. It's not going to get better, and in fact irreparable harm can be done in this lame-duck term as he continues to make up his own laws as he goes along, and, mark my words, will next meddle in the U.S. Court System with appointments that will forever change the basic interpretation of our Constitution's role in protecting our rights. It's time to impeach; and on behalf of American workers and legal immigrants of all backgrounds, we should vehemently oppose any politician on the left or right who would hesitate in voting for articles of impeachment." [Breitbart, 7/8/14]

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA): In 2011, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested that the president could be impeached for failing to enforce the federal Defense of Marriage Act which was overturned in 2013 by the Supreme Court. [LA Times, 7/28/14]