Dewhurst Calls for Obama's Impeachment

During an appearance at a Tarrant County Tea Party candidate forum, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst called for President Obama to be impeached, a spokesman for his campaign confirmed Monday night.

Dewhurst's comments were first reported on Twitter by a reporter who was attending the event on behalf of The Texas Observer. Dewhurst said the president should be impeached for his overreach on issues like immigration and health care, as well as his behavior in the aftermath of a 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. 

The Tribune has reached out to the three candidates vying to replace Dewhurst and will update this story with their responses.

After the event, Travis Considine, Dewhurst's spokesman, said in a statement that as a former CIA officer, the lieutenant governor is often asked about foreign policy issues on the campaign trail.

"He feels very strongly about the tragedy in Benghazi and has said that Congress should consider impeaching the President over the tragedy," he said. "David Dewhurst also believes that President Obama should be held accountable for Washington’s failure to secure the border and the gross overreach of the federal government under Obamacare."

This isn't the first time a Texas Republican has talked about impeaching Obama. In August, U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, said in a town hall meeting that he believed the U.S. House had the votes to impeach the president, though he didn't think it was a good strategy. 

"If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, we would probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it,” Farenthold said, according to a story in Politico. 

That same month, Dewhurst gave an interview to the conservative PJ Media/PJTV in which he said the attack on the U.S. consultate in Benghazi was an "evil" mistake made by the Obama administration. 

“The lack of protecting those four Americans in the consulate in Benghazi. … That is a sin," Dewhurst is quoted as saying in the article. "We know, we’ve seen reported, that there was live video streaming into the Situation Room at the White House. That means there were platforms, aerial platforms, that could’ve been used. … Where do you draw the line? Being PC — politically correct — and you don’t want to offend the leadership in Libya? So you let four Americans be killed and, be mutilated? Outrageous!”