The impeachment trap: Why Democrats keep picking up a weapon they can’t use

TLDR:

• Democrats are deeply divided over whether pushing Trump impeachment helps or hurts their 2026 election chances
• House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is steering the party toward kitchen-table issues, quietly resisting impeachment talk
• Republicans are actively amplifying Democratic impeachment calls, betting it makes the party look extreme
• Even if Democrats retake the House, the same swing-district math that killed the last impeachment effort could doom a new one

Democrats can’t agree on whether impeaching President Trump is a winning message — or a party-wrecking one.

The tension is real. Progressive candidates like Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas are demanding impeachment now. Others, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are steering the conversation back to kitchen-table issues like housing costs and health care, wary that impeachment talk could cost the party the competitive seats it needs to retake the House.

Republicans, including Mr. Trump, are happy to keep the debate going. “The only voters who want to waste time on another fake, political impeachment are the most deranged, radical Democrats,” said Trump pollster John McLaughlin.

The math is brutal either way. When Rep. Al Green forced an impeachment vote last year, 23 Democrats in swing districts sided with Republicans to kill it. Another 47, including Mr. Jeffries, voted “present.”

Even if Democrats win the House in November, those same swing-district pressures don’t disappear.

Mr. Trump was impeached twice before — in 2019 and 2021 — and acquitted by the Senate both times.

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