House Republicans voted overwhelmingly to impeach Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner over his alleged lax approach to Pennsylvania’s rising crime.
On Wednesday, the state House successfully voted 107-85 in favor of removing Krasner from office, leaving his fate to be decided by the GOP-controlled state Senate.
Speaking to Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” Republican Philadelphia Rep. Martina White explained why she intended to impeach Krasner.
“He has misbehaved in office, and he has been derelict in his duties,” White told co-host Bill Hemmer. “And we are seeing the ramifications of that with the crisis of crime that Philadelphia is facing right now.”
“He has been documented as lying to the courts, including a Supreme Court justice that his aides misled,” she continued. “He’s been accused of misleading a grand jury and violating the civil rights of a police officer. He has disregarded victims of crime as it pertains to sentencing matters, and so these are just a few of the items that will be presented today to the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania.”
Republican House Speaker Bran Cutler of Lancaster also said that Krasner had run afoul of the law by attempting to decriminalize or downplay crimes such as petty theft, drug possession, and prostitution.
"What is going on right now in Philadelphia affects all of us."
— PA House Republicans 🇺🇸 (@PAHouseGOP) November 16, 2022
– #PAHouse Speaker Bryan Cutler on the vote to impeach Philly DA Larry Krasner pic.twitter.com/odeuInwS6R
“We don’t get to ignore laws. … If we want to change them, we should amend and legislate them differently, not allow one rogue county … to go off the rails and jeopardize the citizens who live there,” Cutler said.
Following the vote, Krasner accused House Republicans of impeaching him without presenting “a single shred of evidence connecting our policies to any uptick in crime.”
“Philadelphians’ votes, and Philadelphia voters, should not be erased. History will harshly judge this anti-democratic authoritarian effort to erase Philly’s votes – votes by Black, brown, and broke people in Philadelphia. And voters will have the last word,” Krasner tweeted on Wednesday.
This comes a month after the state House Select Committee on Restoring Law and Order accused the George Soros-backed DA of contributing “to a catastrophic rise in violent crime at the expense of public safety” and of failing “to integrate and effectuate his progressive policies with any success.”
