State Rep Introduces Resolution to Impeach Gov Wolf with 24 Cosponsors

Updated: 3 10 a.m. Wednesday 

House Republican Daryl Metcalfe introduced a resolution calling for the impeachment of Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday

Metcalfe, of Butler County, has 24 co-sponsors of the resolution. 

The Republican majority legislature has been clashing with the Wolf administration and in recent days has made attempts to overturn the Governors Emergency Declaration. 

Wolf responded to the last weeks resolution by asking the state Supreme Court to rule if he his well within his rights as the chief executive of the Commonwealth to issue such an order continue it. 

Republicans have argued Wolf’s order has destroyed the states economy although most of the state is now in the yellow or green phase of the administrations reopening plan. Still yet, accusations of governmental overreach. 

“While these are certainly unprecedented and chaotic times, Gov. Tom Wolf must be held accountable for his actions that have harmed so many of our citizens and violated so many of our rights,” Metcalfe said in a statement released Tuesday. “Wolf’s unconstitutional dictates and Orwellian overreach into our lives and the marketplace has caused immeasurable harm and hardship for far more Pennsylvanians than the virus!”

Metcalfe’s resolution is titled:“A Resolution impeaching Thomas W. Wolf, Governor of Pennsylvania, for misbehavior in office.”

“Gov. Wolf’s orders in response to the COVID-19 outbreak have violated a number of our God-given rights affirmed in the United States Constitution. In particular, his order mandating the closure of physical locations of all businesses that he has deemed ‘non-life sustaining’ has violated our citizens’ rights in many devastating ways,” says Metcalfe in his memorandum for the resolution.

Credit: Rhiannon Gomez

 “His focus on restraining business is particularly disturbing, as the majority of deaths due to the pandemic have been residents of long-term care facilities. The governor should have focused his attention there, but he has entirely failed to implement a comprehensive state plan to protect our most vulnerable citizens who reside in nursing homes, which have had inadequate supplies of Personal Protective Equipment and testing kits throughout the outbreak” Metcalfe says. 

The process of impeaching a governor is much the same as it is with that of impeaching a president. The process starts in the state house, before it can be tried in the Senate, where a two -thirds must vote to convict in order to remove him/her from office. 

As of publication, no state lawmakers from Bucks County signed in support of  Metcalfe’s resolution. 

The Wolf administration did not respond to requests for comment as of 9 p.m. Tuesday night.

According to public records the last person to be impeached in the state of Pennsylvania was state Supreme Court  Judge Rolf Larsen (D). He was convicted in 1994 of conspiring to posses drugs without a prescription . 

Larsen died in 2o14.