A majority of Democrats on Tuesday voted against rejecting an effort to impeach President Trump, bucking their leadership ahead of the midterms.
The chamber voted 232-148 to table the resolution, which Rep. Al Green, Texas Democrat, introduced.
A mere 18 Democrats crossed party lines to vote to table the resolution.
The impeachment push forced House Democrats to go on record regarding whether they support using an extreme measure against Mr. Trump, potentially complicating their pitch in competitive districts in the midterms.
Ahead of the vote, House Democratic leaders urged members to vote “present,” an option that avoids a yes-or-no vote. But only 46 did so, and most Democrats voted to keep the resolution alive.
“This is something, oftentimes, I think the right-wing media wants us to talk about, but it’s not anything that is at the top of the agenda for House Democrats,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California told The Washington Times.
Mr. Green’s impeachment resolution accuses Mr. Trump of turning immigration enforcement agencies into “his vicious, quota-driven, unaccountable paramilitary police forces.”
Citing the shooting deaths of multiple people in interactions with federal immigration agents, Mr. Green accuses the president of “devolving the United States democratic republic into an authoritarian regime, where unjustified killings and cover-ups by ICE and CBP are normalized.”
The White House rejects this characterization of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, arguing it threatens law enforcement agents’ safety.
House Democratic leaders did not back Mr. Green’s impeachment gambit.
They said in a statement that impeachment requires “a comprehensive investigative process,” and that “none of that serious work has been done, with the Republican majority focused solely on rubber-stamping Donald Trump’s extreme agenda.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has been dismissive of impeachment due to the low likelihood of a conviction in the Senate.
“I’ve not heard a single person say to me that they think our top priority should be impeachment of Donald Trump,” Mr. Raskin recently said on CNN. “The chances of conviction on even his most gross and undeniable offenses against the Constitution are slim because he exercises even more authoritarian control over the Republican Congress than he did in the last impeachment.”
He still voted against tabling the measure.
Another vote against tabling the impeachment came from Rep. Robert Garcia, a Texas Democrat who also would likely play a major role in investigating the Trump administration if Democrats win the majority.
Mr. Green, who lost his primary in May, has introduced a series of impeachment articles against Mr. Trump in 2017, 2019 and 2025. None advanced to an up-or-down vote on the floor.
The 78-year-old Houston congressman is known for his anti-Trump stunts. He was escorted out of the House chamber twice for disrupting the president’s addresses to Congress.
Republicans did not vote unanimously to table the resolution. Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, voted “present” on the measure.
Several swing-district Democrats voted to table the measure, including Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Jared Golden of Maine, Donald Davis of North Carolina and Henry Cuellar of Texas.
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