PA Lawmakers Will Attempt To Impeach Commissioner Joe Gale

NORRISTOWN, PA — Following Montgomery County Commissioner Joe Gale's refusal to resign for his remarks about recent protests and racial injustice, state lawmakers took matters into their own hands on Wednesday, announcing plans to attempt to impeach him.

State Rep. Joe Webster (D-Montgomery) said Wednesday that he will soon introduce a House resolution, specifically citing Gale's use of county letterhead to publish his comments. The letter called Black Lives Matter a hate group that had manufactured claims of racial injustice.

A co-sponsorship memorandum was circulated in the legislature on Wednesday.

>>Montco's Joe Gale Won't Resign After Controversial Remarks

“Commissioner Gale’s use of public office to disparage a large number of our community members – his constituents – and his contempt for those marching for racial justice make him unsuitable to represent a diverse county and its interests,” Webster said in a statement. “Citizens who exercise the rights guaranteed them by the U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions should not be met with such disdain from their own government officials.”

The measure comes amid calls from both local and state leaders for Gale to resign. Gale's comments, , also drew the attention of national figures, including 76ers forward Tobias Harris.

More than 86,000 signatures had appeared on a Change.org petition to remove Gale as of Wednesday afternoon.

“Impeachment is the only constitutional mechanism to hold Commissioner Gale accountable, and I’m introducing this resolution to ensure that he is,” Webster continued. “I hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in working to hold elected officials in our state to the highest possible standards of decency and responsibility.”

"The radical left can scream, riot and smear me, but they cannot silence me. My message of truth has been heard far and wide," Gale wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday.

Gale has already been censured by his fellow Montgomery County Commissioners, Democrats Val Arkoosh and Ken Lawrence, which was the strongest action that could be taken against him on a county level.