Four Republican state lawmakers filed a dozen articles of impeachment against Gov. Mike DeWine, a fellow Republican, over his efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, The Washington Post reports.
The group says DeWine violated state and federal laws by issuing a mask mandate and ordering some businesses to close.
“Rather than hearing the cries of Ohioans, Gov. DeWine continues to stifle those cries by finding more inventive ways to use masks to muffle the voices of the people,” state Rep. John Becker said in a statement.
Becker and others have been pushing to impeach DeWine since August.
DeWine not facing any real trouble:
DeWine, who was elected in 2018, has dismissed the effort since the summer.
Republican leaders have also pushed back. Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp calle the effort an “imprudent attempt” to escalate policy disagreements.
The articles of impeachment accuse DeWine of “meddling” in the state’s primary by delaying the date and “weaponizing” the state’s worker’s compensation agency to “bully and harass businesses and the people” into wearing masks.
A majority of the House would need to vote to impeach DeWine and two-thirds of the Senate would be required to remove him from office.
DeWine says critics are ignoring reality:
“There’s a small number of people out there making a lot of noise,” DeWine said on Monday. “I just wish they’d go spend some time talking to somebody who suffered through this.”
DeWine made similar comments during the earlier impeachment push in August.
“My priorities are to keep people safe and to get our economy moving faster,” he said at the time. “If there are others in the legislature who want to spend their time drawing up resolutions and filing articles … I’d just say to them, ‘Have at it.’ ”
