It’s been just over 40 years since Jimmy Carter headed back to Plains, Georgia, as the Iranian hostage crisis ended minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office in January of 1981.
Since then, Carter has been used as a political foreign policy punching bag by national Republicans — though recent events in Afghanistan show some GOP lawmakers may be ready to replace Carter with President Joe Biden.
“Joe Biden makes Jimmy Carter look like a competent President,” said U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa.
The top Republican in the House, U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, was also trying this week to tie Biden to some of the worst economic times of the Carter years.
“Joe Biden says he’s bringing American back. He’s brought us back to the 70′s,” McCarthy said, raising the specter of gas shortages and American hostages in the Mideast.
Georgia Republicans in Congress have joined their GOP colleagues in piling on Biden, with some including U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville, calling on the President to resign.
“He is unfit to lead,” added U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, who ridiculed the President’s assertion that the mass evacuation from Kabul was an ‘incredible success.’
U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, went a step further, joining a call by more conservative Republicans in the House for Mr. Biden, his Defense Secretary, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to give up their posts.
“They failed our citizens who they knowingly and willingly left behind enemy lines,” Clyde said outside the Capitol.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, continues to press her GOP colleagues to use other Constitutional tools to get rid of Mr. Biden.
“Demand impeachment!” Greene blasted out on Twitter.
Greene has already filed four different impeachment resolutions against Biden, covering everything from the troubles in Afghanistan to COVID-19 policies and illegal immigration.
So far, Greene has found little support, as just six GOP lawmakers have signed on to her impeachment resolution dealing with Afghanistan (none are from Georgia).
But while Greene has been fanning the flames among conservatives to impeach Biden, the idea was quickly frowned on by the U.S. Senate’s top Republican.
“There isn’t going to be an impeachment,” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell said on Wednesday, as he urged voters to make changes instead at the ballot box.
That’s how Republicans bounced out Jimmy Carter in 1980. How Biden measures up to Carter will depend on what happens with the control of the Congress in 2022, and the White House in 2024.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and the Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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