GOP Congressman Says Democrats Are The People Who Talk Most About Impeachment

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) on Wednesday adamantly denied that Republican leaders are considering impeachment proceedings against President Barack Obama.

Cole said, it's "very seldom" that his Republican colleagues bring up impeachment. "The only people I ever hear talk about impeachment are Democrats, and I think it's always for political purposes," Cole said to MSNBC's Craig Melvin.

"No impeachment legislation is pending. None has been proposed. I know of no one who favors that as a course that's in any leadership position," he said.

Comments from lawmakers about a possible Obama impeachment have been circulating for months and were mentioned again Tuesday by Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on MSNBC's "The Ed Show."

Republicans have brought up the topic many times, too. Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) told the Tea Party Express in August, "If impeachment comes up, it's not because Congress wants to do that, it's because the president has chosen to bring that upon himself by not enforcing the laws on the books." In 2013, Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) said he believed the House of Representatives had enough votes to impeach the president, when he responded to an inquiry about the authenticity of Obama's birth certificate.

The public appears to be split largely along party lines on the topic. A July HuffPost/YouGov poll showed that 68 percent of Republican respondents said they believed there was justification for beginning the impeachment process against Obama, while only 8 percent of Democrats said the same.

Watch Cole's comments above.

H/T TPM