House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is reportedly warning that Democrats will move quickly to impeach President Trump if they take control of the House in the midterm elections.
“It’s guaranteed, probably on the first day — first or second day,” Johnson said Tuesday in an interview with pro-Trump commentator Scott Jennings. “Remember, they’ve already filed articles of impeachment in this Congress. And they’re raring to go.”
The remarks serve as both a warning to Republicans and a campaign message meant to drive GOP voters to the polls in November. Many handicappers now favor Democrats to win the House majority.
Polls show Trump’s policies are widely unpopular, even among many Republicans. A much smaller number, however, support removing him from office. Many liberals want the president ousted, but plenty of other Democrats worry that impeachment talk will only fire up GOP voters who might otherwise stay home.
That has left House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and his leadership team in a tough spot. They are trying to keep the party focused on the volatile economy while liberals on and off Capitol Hill step up their calls to remove Trump.
Jeffries, who would be in line for the Speaker’s gavel if the House flips, has tried to manage those competing pressures by keeping every option open without committing to any of them.
“We haven’t ruled anything out when it comes to all of the tools available to us to hold people accountable, and we haven’t ruled anything in,” Jeffries told reporters in Washington last month as the House left for the long election recess. “That’s been our position. That will remain our position.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., went further, brushing off the impeachment talk as a Republican scare tactic.
“This is something, oftentimes, I think the right-wing media wants us to talk about,” Aguilar said in late September. “But it’s not anything that is top of the agenda for House Democrats.”
Still, Democrats had to face the question head-on last month. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, forced a vote on articles of impeachment related to the deaths of civilians at the hands of federal immigration enforcement officers.
The resolution won the support of 147 Democrats, nearly 70 percent of the caucus. Jeffries, Aguilar and other party leaders kept their distance from the effort by voting “present.”
Green will not be back next year, having fallen victim to Trump’s redistricting push. But a number of incoming liberals want Democrats to take a harder line against the administration, and they could pick up the impeachment fight where Green left off.
Johnson, for his part, says the impeachment debate is largely beside the point. He insists Republicans will hold the House next year.
“This is not going to happen,” Johnson told Jennings. “Let’s just paint this alternative world, OK. Cause I’m convinced, Scott, we can hold this majority.”
For now, the Speaker is using the threat of a Democratic impeachment push as a rallying cry for the GOP base. Democratic leaders, meanwhile, are trying to keep the issue at arm’s length as Election Day approaches.
