House squashes second attempt to impeach Trump from Rep. Al Green

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday dismissed an effort to impeach President Donald Trump brought by Democratic Rep. Al Green of Texas, the second time this year that the Democrat’s efforts to launch impeachment proceedings have been turned aside.

The House voted 237-140 to shelve Green’s impeachment resolution, with 47 Democratic lawmakers voting present. The result was expected, yet suggested a shift in support for bringing charges of impeachment against Trump among House Democrats, who rejected a similar measure by a much wider margin in June.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his deputies said in a statement before the vote that impeachment “requires a comprehensive investigative process” that had not been undertaken by the Republican majority. Yet the Democratic leaders notably declined to oppose the resolution outright, instead voting “present.”

“Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle designed to hold a corrupt executive accountable for abuse of power, breaking the law and violating the public trust,” they said.

“None of that serious work has been done, with the Republican majority focused solely on rubber stamping Donald Trump’s extreme agenda. Accordingly, we will be voting ‘present’ on today’s motion,” they continued.

Green has said impeachment measures are necessary because he believes Trump has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” in his second term, the constitutionally required bar for impeachment and removal from office.

Green’s resolution in June accused Trump of bypassing Congress and potentially declaring war on Iran after the administration conducted air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The latest version sought to impeach Trump for “threatening Democratic lawmakers in Congress with execution” over a social media video urging members of the military to refuse illegal orders.

“He has conducted himself in office such that persons are now threatening members of the judiciary, threatening members of the House of Representatives, threatening members of the Senate,” Green said in a brief floor speech before the vote.

Trump was impeached twice in his first term, first in 2019 by a Democratic-majority House over his push for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to open a corruption investigation into the Biden family ahead of the 2020 election. He was impeached a second time in 2021 by the House over his effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the riot at the U.S. Capitol. He was acquitted by the Senate both times.

Republicans have begun to warn that Democrats are determined to impeach Trump a third time if they win the majority, pushing it toward the forefront of next year’s campaigns. Many of them dismissed Thursday’s vote as a distraction.

“It shows you they have no agenda. And so this is the kind of stuff that they’ve been doing, as opposed to actually trying to solve the American people’s issues,” said Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, a Florida Republican. “This is not a surprise, but it just shows you that the Democrats continue to do the same kind of thing they’ve been doing for years, which is playing games and not coming up with real solutions.”

Democratic leaders insisted they are not intent on impeaching Trump in his second term and stressed the gravity of such proceedings and the need for a thorough investigation.

Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat and vice chair of the Democratic Caucus, said there are “a diversity of views” about impeachment in the caucus. He said that House Democrats intend to conduct oversight of the administration should they win a majority in next year’s midterms but that a win at the ballot box did not guarantee an impeachment vote.

“I think you would have to have an investigation where you actually talk to witnesses and review documents and look at, you know, video and listen to audio. You need to do all of that before any decisions are made,” he said.

Matt Brown, The Associated Press