A Republican senator is renewing the call to impeach President Biden following reports of aid to Israel being delayed during its war with the terrorist organization Hamas.
“The House has no choice but to impeach Biden based on the Trump-Ukraine precedent of withholding foreign aid to help with reelection. Only with Biden, it’s true,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote on X on Thursday.
A recently passed $95 billion supplemental foreign aid package included roughly $26 billion for both Israel and humanitarian aid for areas including Gaza. The aid was encouraged by the Biden administration, which had proposed it nearly six months prior.
Cotton suggested that Biden should be impeached for delaying an aid shipment to Israel, which he claimed had to do with the president’s re-election bid as he balances a divided Democratic Party on the Israel war.
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Sen. Tom Cotton and other Republicans slammed President Biden for what they alleged was better treatment for anti-Israel rioters than U.S. ally Israel. (Getty Images)
The White House Counsel’s office did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.
Earlier this week, Israeli officials claimed the U.S. had paused a shipment of ammunition from the U.S., as Axios reported.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre maintained that the U.S.’s commitment to Israel is “ironclad,” despite the report.
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The report was ultimately confirmed by a U.S. official, who said the administration paused shipments of two types of precision bombs to Israel. One shipment would provide 2,000-pound bombs, with 1,800 to be delivered. The second held 500-pound bombs, with 1,700 to be delivered.
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“The U.S. position has been that Israel should not launch a major ground operation in Rafah, where more than a million people are sheltering with nowhere else to go,” a U.S. official said.
“We are especially focused on the end-use of the 2,000-lb bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza. We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment,” they added.
Israeli soldiers gather in southern Israel before they enter the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Per the official, “None of these shipments have anything to do with the Israel supplemental appropriations passed last month. All are drawn from previously appropriated funds, some many years ago.”
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Biden drew a red line for ally Israel. “I made it clear that if they go into Rafah – they haven’t gone in Rafah yet – if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem,” he said.
The White House did not immediately confirm the delayed shipment when prompted by Fox News Digital.
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The Democratic-led House’s impeachment of then-President Trump in 2019 indicted him on a charge of abuse of power, arguing he withheld aid to Ukraine while asking the country’s leader to investigate his political rivals, including Biden. The Senate acquitted Trump on the House’s charges.
Cotton argued the same precedent should apply to Biden.
Then-President Trump speaks during a news briefing at the White House. (AP)
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Trump’s campaign did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.
Republicans in the House have appeared eager to impeach the president, heavily investigating Biden’s family’s business ties, particularly his son Hunter Biden.
House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., did not immediately provide comment to Fox News Digital.
Fox News’ Liz Friden and Jacqui Heinrich contributed to this report.
Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner.
Follow Julia’s reporting on X at @JuliaaJohnson_ and send tips to [email protected].
