Democrats Coy About Possible Trump Impeachment as Midterms Loom

During President Donald Trump’s second White House term, Democrats have shown little stomach for filing articles of impeachment targeting him. They dreamed up two impeachments during his first term – and both of them have since crumbled under closer examination. Of course, Democrats don’t have control of the US House this time around. That could change in November, so what are the chances that the president’s political foes reopen the same playbook?

Speaking with NBC News’s Kristen Welker on June 15, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) did not rule it out. However, as much as they would surely like to, it seems the minority party has decided not to make impeachment of the president a signature feature of their midterm campaign.

Playing Down Impeachment

“This time around, because of our over-performance in 2024, with candidates who are focused on the economy, we only need to flip a handful of seats,” Jeffries said, “and we will, with a focus on driving down the high cost of living, fixing our broken health care system, getting ICE under control, ending this reckless and costly war of choice in the Middle East, and cleaning up corruption.”

When Welker asked Jeffries directly about possible plans for impeachment, the New York congressman responded, “We haven’t ruled anything in or ruled anything out, in terms of accountability.”

To anyone on the right, that all probably sounds delusional, but winning Congress back from Republican control will require a focus on their voters’ concerns. According to the USPollingData website, the top overall voter concern is the economy – 72% say it is very important. Among only Republican voters, the most important issue is immigration (78%), and among Democratic voters, it is healthcare (79%).

At this point, still with just under five months until the midterm elections, it would serve no purpose for Democrats to be posturing about impeachment. Their odds of taking the house seem pretty good, at least going by polls and the prediction markets, along with historical precedent, which holds that the party controlling the White House almost always loses seats in midterm elections. It’s no slam-dunk, though, and their realistic chances of winning a Senate majority are far less attractive. Having enough Senate votes to convict an impeached president is not even in the cards.

The ‘Resistance’ Still Wants Revenge

Still, there’s a large and very vocal faction on the left who will settle for nothing less than retribution for all the perceived wrongs the Trump administration has done them.

George Conway, the former Republican attorney who, at least in his own mind, pursues Trump with an all-consuming hatred that equals Captain Ahab’s obsession with Moby Dick, is all in on impeachment. Though he has not much more than an outside chance of winning the House seat for which he is running, Conway has apparently decided that his own winning strategy is to run on impeaching the president.

Making the most of 60 seconds of fame in front of the Capitol building in Washington, DC, on June 15, Conway, addressing Trump directly – as if the president was going to actually watch or even remember who Conway is – bragged, “And you see that building back there? That’s where we’re going to hold your third and final impeachment trial, the one that’s going to put you away for good, and I’m going to enjoy every minute of that.”

In response, a White House spokesperson did not disappoint, saying, “Lightweight George Conway is a stupid person’s idea of a smart person.”

Come November, the 47th president will have two more years in office and won’t be back. If the Democrats do win control of Congress – and if Trump really has done as much damage to the country as his detractors allege – then Democrats have those two years to “undo” that damage. Since they have no chance of removing Trump from office before January of 2029 (and he may well be succeeded by another Republican), the Democrats on Capitol Hill will have a great deal of legislative work to do and precious little time to put the nation through a third impeachment charade.

Will they do the work the American people need them to do, or will they indulge their revenge-politics preoccupation? Which of those two options they choose will tell Americans far more about them than about the current president.