Kentucky House creating committee to consider impeaching Gov. Beshear

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - The Kentucky House of Representatives is creating a committee to consider impeaching Governor Andy Beshear.

According to the state constitution, the House must form a committee if it receives a petition for the governor’s impeachment. On Friday, four Kentuckians submitted that petition.

They are Jacob Clark from Grayson County, Tony Wheatley from Mercer County, Randall Daniel from Bullitt County, and Andrew Cooperrider from Fayette County. The men are calling for Beshear to be impeached on eight counts regarding his COVID-19 restrictions.

One of the men, Cooperrider, defied the governor’s restaurant restrictions by keeping his coffee shop open. The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department tried suing him to get Brewed shut down, but the case was dismissed once Beshear’s executive order expired.

The House committee that will review the impeachment petition has not yet been formed. Republican Representative Jason Nemes says he wants to take a look at the document before he makes any decisions.

“I think the governor has put a lot of restrictions in place that have been good,” said Rep. Nemes, R-District 33. “I think he’s went far, too far, on a number of things. He was found to have violated the law a number of times, our constitutional rights as courts have found. I think he’s went too far a number of ways. Whether or not that’s impeachable. That’s something we’ll be discussing.”

Beshear’s administration has called the impeachment petition silly and unjustified, pointing out that the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled in November that Beshear’s COVID-19 restrictions were constitutional.

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