Freshman Democrats who delivered the House majority are starting to split under impeachment pressure as a number of those in competitive districts are now warming to the idea of launching proceedings against President Donald Trump. As the administration continues to stonewall requests for documents — not just surrounding special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation but also around oversight probes into other agencies and Trump’s finances — Democrats are growing frustrated. Some freshmen are asking what recourse can be taken other than an impeachment inquiry — a tactic presented by a number of veteran Democratic leaders to strengthen their hand in court.
“We’re just getting closer and closer to a point where we have to do something,” said Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif)., a freshman member of leadership who beat a GOP incumbent last fall. “Each of us is personally struggling because we see on so many levels ... where he’s committed impeachable offenses.”
The shift by some divides the class of vulnerable members into two camps: those who see a moral and constitutional obligation to say Trump’s conduct is unfit for the presidency despite potential political risks and those who believe impeaching Trump wouldn't result in his removal — and would only hurt Democrats like them.
Until recently, the majority of Democrats in competitive districts have stayed away from calling for impeachment or even commenting on current investigations. But the growing interest in impeachment among several key battleground members could be a sign that the Democratic Caucus as a whole is inching toward taking drastic action to rebuke Trump — over the objections of leadership. Multiple vulnerable Democrats have said privately that refusing to pursue impeachment could hurt their reelection chances by depressing enthusiasm among the party's base.
The rift demonstrates the near-impossible balance for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies as they attempt to expose what they see as unprecedented misconduct by Trump without distracting from an ambitious legislative agenda that delivered them the majority.
“The public wants us to do our job, which we are, but it also includes continuing our investigation, and the more the Trump administration and the president defies Congress' constitutional law, the more we're seeing increasing demand for Congress to take action,” Rep. Harley Rouda a Democrat who flipped a longtime Republican seat in Orange County, Calif., in 2018, told POLITICO.
Days later, Rouda went further during an interview on MSNBC, saying he thinks Democrats should “draw a line in the sand.”
“Either honor the subpoenas and the request for documentation by this date, or we will move towards impeachment proceedings,” Rouda said Sunday.
And the administration's move this week to block former White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying, coupled with the unproductive negotiations over Mueller’s public testimony, have pushed more frontline Democrats to consider an impeachment inquiry, which they argue wouldn’t necessarily lead to an actual vote on the floor.
New Jersey Democrat Tom Malinowski, a top Republican target in 2020, plans to decide whether he supports an impeachment inquiry in the coming days.
“I’m going to be cautious, but I think the administration's actions are pushing us to a point where that may be the only option,” Malinowski said. “The hard question that we’ve been forced to confront is: How do we fulfill our constitutional and moral obligation at a time when Congress is broken by partisanship and we know that the Senate will not remove him if he shoots a man on 5th Avenue? That’s what a lot of us have been struggling with.”
But while some of the party's most vulnerable freshmen are warming to the idea, many of the caucus’ moderates, especially those in districts Trump carried in 2016, are privately grateful for Pelosi’s efforts to stamp out talk of impeachment.
Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y)., who in 2018 flipped a Staten Island-based seat that went for Trump by nearly 10 percentage points in 2016, expressed frustration with his fellow battleground-district freshmen who are inching toward impeachment.
If Democrats go down that path, Rose said, “Then they should warm to the idea of going back to the minority.”
“Right now we’re in this incredibly childish game of impeachment chicken, and everyone has to start acting like adults," Rose added. "The president needs to listen to Congress. Congress needs to act responsibly — I believe
0 Comments