Democrats are wary of impeachment even as the GOP uses it to motivate voters

Republicans have a warning for their base: If you let Democrats retake the House, they’ll impeach Donald Trump again.

“Democrats would vote to impeach (Trump) on their first day,” Speaker Mike Johnson claimed in an interview with the Shreveport Times this month. Conservative columnist Bryon York warned Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to redistrict California was a veiled threat to "end the Trump presidency by using the constitutional procedure to end presidencies — impeachment.” And the National Republican Congressional Committee recently unleashed a digital ad framing the stakes of the midterms this way: Democrats' “Project 2026” agenda is to "impeach President Trump."

As the GOP is girding for potentially tough midterms battles, it sees the spectre of impeachment as a reason for conservative-leaning voters to come to the polls in a year when Trump is not on the ballot.

But so far, at least, Democrats seem wary of e

ven talking about it. In conversations with roughly a dozen Democratic strategists and elected officials, there is little consensus about the party's strategy on impeachment. Many warned against focusing on it.

“We should never, at least in the near future, use the ‘I’ word,” said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.). “One of the things we learned is that articles of impeachment are also articles of recruitment for Trump.”

Trump survived removal efforts and found his way back into power, even though Democrats said he was a threat to democracy. If anything, impeachment and his legal troubles before returning to office resulted in a fundraising boon for Trump.

House Democratic leaders appear vexed at the prospect of making a third run at removing Trump from office after previous attempts ended in acquittals in the Senate. With the party needing only a handful of seats to take back the majority in the House, it is not clear the broader electorate is clamoring for another impeachment fight.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' office declined to comment for this story. But a person close to House leadership, granted anonymity to discuss campaign strategy, blasted Republicans for going into “full fear mode” about the midterm elections.

“There will be some emotional members who want to grab headlines with impeachment, however [House Democratic] leadership has thus far shown that it’s not a tool in our box” to hold Trump accountable, the person added, with House Democrats blocking attempts by some members to impeach him.

“Of course impeachment is a tool of the Congress that should always be available and appropriate,” said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who also chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus. “But right now, I think we're in a stage where we're trying to try this case out in the court of public opinion before we do anything else.”

Even outside groups that were leading agitators for Democrats to launch impeachment efforts during Trump’s first term seem reluctant to deploy that same strategy again.

“Impeachment is good, but it’s a symbolic act. It’s not enough,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of Indivisible.

So far this year, House Democrats have doomed efforts by their own caucus members to impeach Trump, including a majority of the caucus joining House Republicans to kill an impeachment push from Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) over Iran airstrikes in June. House leadership successfully dissuaded Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) from moving forward with another article of impeachment stemming from Trump’s push to annex Greenland and on tariffs.

Green plans to keep trying.

“I will not stop and I promise you this president is going to be brought down. He’s got to be brought down,” Green said during a press conference this month in suburban Chicago. Speaking alongside several Democrats from the Texas legislature that left the state to prevent a quorum in Austin to pass the new Texas maps, Green vowed: “He will be impeached again.”

For now, Green is considered an outlier among the caucus, but he was in 2018, too.

Back then, House Democrats, led by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, were initially uneasy about leaning fully into impeachment talks heading into the midterms. But the burgeoning blue wave that helped Democrats take back the House was propelled by a broader message from the party's base, who harnessed anti-Trump sentiment promising to hold Trump to account.

Just two weeks after Trump was inaugurated in 2017, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said her “greatest desire is to lead him right into impeachment,” and she continued to call for his impeachment. Four articles of impeachment were introduced in that Congress, by Reps. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) and Green of Texas on a range of offenses ranging from obstructing investigation by firing then-FBI Director James Comey, violations of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution and a pair of articles citing Trump's use of “racially inflammatory statements.”

By 2019, about a week after being sworn in, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) revved up an anti-Trump audience proclaiming, “We’re gonna impeach the motherfucker!”

While many of these key figures from past impeachments are still in Washington, the politics of impeachment have changed. Democrats have struggled to craft a coherent message and maintain a sustained fight against Trump and his Republican allies.

Many Democrats see it as a fool's errand to go down that path again.

“Absolutely not. It is bananas to even think about it,” said Matt Bennett, co-founder of Third Way.

His organization has been trying to warn Democrats against engaging in maneuvers that make them look weak compared to Trump’s aggressive dismantling of federal government and political norms. Impeachment would be a “Trump dream,” he said, that plays into the president’s political strengths.

Some frontline Democrats aren’t running away from impeachment, but they caution that more energy needs to be spent convincing voters Democrats have an agenda worth supporting.

“Impeachment is simply one tool in the tool belt of opportunities to hold the other branch to account,” said Rep. Janelle Bynum, one of incumbent House members Democrats are preparing to defend in next year’s midterms.

There are other tactics Democrats should deploy, according to Levin of Indivisible: “We want hearings, investigations, subpoenas, testimonies, oversight. Trump isn’t the only or even the most important target here — collaborators, capitulators, and enablers should know what’s coming.”

For some, that includes going after those in the president’s orbit who are ramping up pressure campaigns on elected officials in red-leaning states like Texas, Indiana, and Missouri to take up off-year redistricting to create more winnable districts for Republicans to maintain control of the House.

As both parties become entrenched in redistricting battles, some GOP operatives fear it may muddle the party’s ability to elevate a third Trump impeachment as top issue in the midterms.

Republicans worry that without control of the House, Trump’s agenda will grind to a halt. Even with their slim control of both chambers of Congress, Republicans have had difficulty passing much legislation. Trump’s signature tax law was passed through a special reconciliation process requiring a simple majority of both chambers to pass.

If Democrats get power back, Republicans warn, they’ll be looking to wield it.

"If Hakeem Jeffries and Democrats get the majority, day one they're going to pass articles of impeachment," said Indiana Republican strategist Pete Seat, pointing to calls from the Democratic base to push back against Trump."How could they not?"

Shia Kapos contributed to this report.