Kevin McCarthy Mocked For Complaining That No President Has Ever Been Impeached in Their First Term

Rep. Kevin McCarthy appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning amidst the ongoing Congressional impeachment proceedings and suggested a curious defense of President Donald Trump.

Co-host Brian Kilmeade noted how President Trump started “leading all democratic candidates in the battleground states –since impeachment kicked into gear,” before McCarthy offered the following insight.

“In modern history, we’ve never gone after impeaching a president in the first term,” McCarthy said, suggesting somehow that any high crime and misdemeanor in the first term of a presidency should be overlooked because, well, the pretend “first-term impeachment precedent” that doesn’t actually exist.

Predictably, McCarthy got ridiculed on Twitter for making such an absurd claim. To wit:

“In modern history, we’ve never gone after impeaching a president in the first term” — Kevin McCarthy argues that there’s a precedent against impeaching presidents before their second term ? pic.twitter.com/lPJMJGlIQy

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 9, 2019

Huh. I wasn’t aware that Presidential crime-ing is only okay in the first term. Ya learn something new everyday on the Twitters. https://t.co/PCgEVYMKwk

— Kathleen Smith (@KikkiPlanet) December 9, 2019

Foiled. How did we forget about the “Presidential Right to First-Term Crime Spree” clause of the Constitution? https://t.co/ZcuJPplsMO

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) December 9, 2019

Ah, the old “He probably deserves to be impeached but it’s bad form to do so in his first term” pivot.
It’s not even interesting anymore to point out this endless parade of mindless, self-serving, delusional drivel. If you saw someone behaving this way on the sidewalk you’d (1) https://t.co/4UeWw55tDZ

— Jim Rich (@therealjimrich) December 9, 2019

This is a novel argument—that crimes are acceptable if committed in the president’s first term. (You gotta hand it to these guys, they are pretty creatively craven when trying to defend the indefensible). https://t.co/KEuKYHN621

— Brian Klaas (@brianklaas) December 9, 2019

lol the second term precedent! https://t.co/6wuJGIk35D

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) December 9, 2019