Will the GOP impeach Kamala Harris or Joe Biden? See their statement

On Sunday, Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News that Republicans could technically start an impeachment trial on President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris now that former President Donald Trump has been impeached twice. Graham argued that the trial over the Capitol insurrection “opened Pandora’s Box”. 

Justification for an impeachment

The day after the Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham made a theoretical argument for impeaching Vice President Kamala Harris. He argued that the GOP could open a case based on Harris’s support for a bail-out fund for protesters over the summer. 

“If you use this model, I don’t know how Kamala Harris doesn’t get impeached if the Republicans take over the House,” Graham explained. “Because she actually bailed out rioters and one of the rioters went back to the streets and broke somebody’s head open. So we’ve opened Pandora’s Box here and I’m sad for the country.”

This statement wasn’t the first time Graham has brought up the topic. Earlier this month in an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity, he brought it into an argument attempting to dissuade Democrats from bringing witnesses into Trump’s impeachment trial.

“If you’re going to pursue this, and you want to start calling witnesses, and you want to drag this thing out, it would be fair to have Kamala Harris’ tape play where she bailed people out of jail.”

Graham continued: “What more could you do to incite future violence, than to pay the bail of the people who broke up the shops and beat up the cops. How’s that not inciting future violence? Be careful what you wish for, my Democratic colleagues, be careful what you wish for.”

What is the Minnesota Freedom Fund?

In his argument for the potential impeachment of Vice President Kamala Harris, Lindsey Graham was referring to the Minnesota Freedom fund: a bail fund in Minneapolis, Minnesota, founded in 2016. The fund pays the bail of people who have been arrested and are awaiting trial.

The Minnesota Freedom fund grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the organization fought to release more inmates from prison due to the virus sweeping prison populations.

The fund also became more well-known after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. After news of his death was released to the public, they received a whopping $20 million in donations over just four days. They subsequently allocated contributions to people who had been arrested while protesting Floyd’s death. 

Once they announced these intentions, Harris jumped on board with the fund, writing on Twitter in June: “If you’re able to, chip in now to the @MNFreedomFund to help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”

People’s responses

Soon after the interview, people started to call Lindsey Graham’s bluff, labeling his claims bogus. One Twitter user wrote: “Does anyone else think that Lindsey is going off the rails . . maybe he’s worried they’re coming or him . . .” 

Another person asked: “When is Lindsey going to do something that actually helps the people he is supposedly serving? How about working on COVID relief, health care, the economy, national security, education, domestic terrorism; any number of things that are substantively more important than a grudge.”

Another Twitter user added: “Great! An old, white, South Carolina supporter of white supremacists threatens to impeach the first female VP of color! What’s wrong with this picture?? And he thinks the GOP has a future???”

And finally, another person summed up the whole situation pretty well. “Graham has taken his hood off,” they wrote. “He is an old dinosaur as the US moves into a new age with women of color in top positions across the country and a multicultural US voting at the polls. White supremacy is losing, it just lost a round with Biden and Harris taking office!”