Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele spoke out against Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas) on Tuesday, rejecting calls for an effort to impeach President Barack Obama.
"These comments, they're just beyond the pale," Steele said. "Particularly from members of the House, who take these arcane, asinine positions that they know have no basis in fact and no grounding in reality."
Farenthold held a town hall over the weekend, where he faced a strong anti-Obama birther constituent. She asked if he would sign a bill out there aimed at investigating the validity of Obama's birth certificate.
“You tie into a question I get a lot: 'If everybody’s so unhappy with what the president’s done, why don’t you impeach him?’” Farenthold said. “I’ll give you a real frank answer about that: If we were to impeach the president tomorrow, you could probably get the votes in the House of Representatives to do it. But it would go to the Senate, and he wouldn’t be convicted.”
A February HuffPost-YouGov poll surveyed 3,000 U.S. adults, finding that at least half of Republicans support removing Obama from office. Some birthers have not relented on their quest to disprove Obama's birth certificate, with a group of protesters picketing in mid-August against the president in Florida.
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