Lawmakers want to impeach DeWine over pandemic orders

Credit:

Credit:

For the second time in four months, state Rep. John Becker made a move to impeach Gov. Mike DeWine over how he has handled the coronavirus pandemic this year.

Becker, R-Union Twp., filed a dozen articles of impeachment on Monday, alleging that the Cedarville Republican has broken the law and violated the state and federal constitutions.

Asked about the impeachment effort, DeWine in a Monday press conference said, “I’d like for them to go in and talk to some nurses who are frontline nurses who are dealing with people who are dying. At some point this foolishness needs to stop.”

Becker is joined by state Reps. Candice Keller, R-Middletown; Nino Vitale, R-Urbana; and Paul Zeltwanger, R-Mason. They take issue with DeWine’s public health orders that mandate face masks, set curfews for businesses and “weaponizing” the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation to “bully and harass businesses and the people” to wear masks.

“He continues to have callous disregard for the fact that his isolation policies have led to a shockingly high number of suicides, alarming rates of drug abuse, persistently high unemployment, and the forced abandonment of the elderly by their loved ones,” Becker said in a written release.

DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said he had yet to see the latest articles of impeachment but noted that Becker’s last impeachment attempt was “patently absurd.”

DeWine later said a small number of people think COVID-19 is a joke or fantasy.

“There’s a small number of people out there making a lot of noise.”

He said that instead of wasting time on this, they should talk to frontline nurses, and families who have experienced the loss of a loved one.

In August, Becker, Vitale and Zeltwanger filed articles of impeachment against DeWine.

About the Author