Clyburn: GOP will try to impeach Obama

Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn is predicting that Republicans will try to impeach Barack Obama so that they can “put an asterisk” next to the name of the first black president.

“There will be some reason found to introduce an impeachment resolution,” the South Carolina congressman said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Ed Show.” “These Republicans have decided that this president must have an asterisk by his name after he leaves office, irrespective of whether or not he gets convicted. It is their plan to introduce an impeachment resolution.”


He continued, “[This whole charade] is to put an asterisk next to this first African-American president in the history of the country — to put an asterisk next to his name when the history books are written.”

Clyburn, a high-ranking member of Democratic leadership in the House, argued that Republicans are aiming for impeachment as a way to “keep the country focused on foolishness rather than on what we need to do in order to move an agenda forward.”

As far as what will spur the call to impeach, Clyburn pointed to the heated debate on immigration reform.

Obama has warned Republican leaders in Congress that if they do not act quickly on a plan to reform immigration laws, he will issue executive orders aimed at changing the system. Speaker John Boehner has said that executive actions will “poison the well” on any attempts to reform the laws.

“They know that this is an issue that the president feels very strongly about,” Clyburn said. “They believe that the president is so committed to this issue that he will, in fact, perform an executive order to get it done and that will be the peg in which they will hang an impeachment resolution.”