Yes, Republicans can impeach President Obama

But it would be a boneheaded move for numerous reasons

Impeach President Obama
(Image credit: (James Leynse/Corbis))

When Congress heads off on its upcoming five-week recess, some Republicans, at town halls with constituents, will bring up the "I" word: impeachment. Barack Obama, they'll say, needs to be removed from office. The reasons, in their view, are many: Benghazi. The IRS. An inability to control the Mexican border, to name but three. The constitutional standard for removal from office — in Article II, Section 4 — is "Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors," and to the far right, Obama more than qualifies.

Talking tough about impeachment is what constituents in gerrymandered Republican districts want to hear. It's good red-meat politics. But back here on planet Earth, the reality is this: There's about as much chance of Obama being removed from office as there is of Nancy Pelosi throwing the winning touchdown in the Super Bowl. It's just not going to happen. The probability is literally zero.

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Paul Brandus

An award-winning member of the White House press corps, Paul Brandus founded WestWingReports.com (@WestWingReport) and provides reports for media outlets around the United States and overseas. His career spans network television, Wall Street, and several years as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow, where he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union for NBC Radio and the award-winning business and economics program Marketplace. He has traveled to 53 countries on five continents and has reported from, among other places, Iraq, Chechnya, China, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.