Beshear condemns men who filed impeachment petition, accusing them of terror
Gov. Andy Beshear denounced the people who filed a petition seeking his impeachment on Tuesday, sharing previous social media posts and actions by some of the four men that Beshear said were aimed at terrorizing him and his family.
“These people who signed this petition have tried to commit terror for me and my family before,” Beshear said. “And when that hasn’t worked, I guess they’re trying something new.”
One of the men who signed the petition, Jacob Clark of Leitchfield, posted a video on Facebook in April titled “A warning for Governor Andy Beshear” in which Clark had a handgun sitting on the shelf above his shoulder while he recorded the video. Clark, who told the Herald-Leader Saturday that he is a part-time Baptist minister, read from the Bible while denouncing Beshear’s COVID-19 restrictions on churches.
“This is a warning to Gov. Andy Beshear, this is not intended to be physically threatening,” Clark said before reading a passage about King Jerboam. “I would say it’s a warning from God to Gov. Beshear to not be stretching forth your hand against God’s people.”
Clark also made a post in May opposing U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, implying McConnell is a “traitor and should be hanged.”
Another man on the petition, Tony Wheatley, helped organize the May rally at the Capitol that ended in Beshear being hung in effigy. Wheatley also posted about having “people in D.C.” during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and that they were safe. Beshear said Wheatley also helped organize an armed rally at the Capitol Saturday.
Andrew Cooperrider — the owner of Brewed coffee shop in Lexington, which was sued by the Lexington Fayette County Health Department for not complying with COVID-19 restrictions — shared a photo of one of the pro-Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol and said “you reap what you sow.”
The group collected signatures for the petition at a Capitol rally last week in which one person had a sign that said “make hanging traitors great again.”
House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, said he is taking the petition seriously and has refused to comment on whether he believes Beshear should be impeached. On Monday, the House formed a seven-member committee to investigate the claims laid out in the petition.
The chairman of the committee — Rep. Jason Nemes, R-Louisville — said Tuesday that the first action of the committee would be to seek a formal response from Beshear.
While impeachment would be a drastic step, as no Kentucky governor has ever been impeached, there are many Republican lawmakers who are angry with Beshear because of how he’s handled the COVID-19 pandemic — particularly his decisions to put restrictions on in-person gatherings at businesses and schools. Some Republican members have floated bringing their own articles of impeachment against Beshear.
It’s unclear whether the impeachment committee will placate those members, but on Saturday, Clark said he doesn’t believe lawmakers will push the petition. Clark is a libertarian and ran for the Kentucky House of Representatives in 2020.
Beshear denounced anyone who is “playing pattycake with these so-called militias,” saying they enable the type of people who stormed the U.S. Capitol.
“We cannot, as a country and a government, lift these folks up,” Beshear said. “It’s dangerous and it’s fanning the flames of their hate and of their anger.”
