Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) clarified his position on impeaching President Barack Obama on Saturday, saying that even though the president deserves to be impeached, he shouldn't be removed from office.
In a radio interview earlier last week, Huckabee said the president had committed impeachable offenses, but it would be impractical to try him for impeachment because Democrats would block it.
"There's no doubt that he's done plenty of things worthy of impeachment," Huckabee said last Monday. "Now the fact is, we don't have the Senate so, even if you impeached him in the House and it went to trial in the Senate, it would never even get to the floor because Harry Reid has been sitting on 357 pieces of legislation passed by the House Republicans."
But in an interview with Iowa reporters, the potential 2016 presidential candidate claimed that his remarks had been taken out of context and that he had said Obama had committed offenses worthy of impeachment, but should not in fact be impeached.
"I think impeachment ought to be something that would be used in the rarest and most unusual of circumstances, and because a person has perhaps exceeded his authority, and in this case I believe the president has in a number of areas, doesn't mean that's advisable," he said.
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has dismissed the possibility of impeachment as a "scam," but several other conservative lawmakers have refused to take impeachment off the table entirely.
"The president deserves to be impeached, plain and simple," Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) told reporters last month. "We've got so much on our plate, it's not practical, we don't have the Senate ... I don't think it's practical that we impeach him right now. But he definitely deserves it."
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) has also refused to rule out the possibility of impeachment.
(h/t Talking Points Memo)
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