Dozens of House Democrats voted to help Republicans quash an effort to impeach President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, forced a vote on impeaching Trump over federal immigration officials' killing of two U.S. citizens earlier this year. The move fractured House Democrats, whose leaders have largely avoided placing an emphasis on trying to oust the president as they work to take back Congress in the November midterms.
The House voted to table the measure in a 232 to 147 vote, a maneuver to get rid of it while avoiding voting on the impeachment resolution itself.
Eighteen House Democrats voted with Republicans to table the resolution, while 46 voted "present." Nearly 150 voted to move forward with a vote on impeaching Trump.
Democrats walked a political tightrope with the bill, forced to choose between appeasing their anti-Trump base and appealing to moderate and independent voters by showing them they were focused on tackling Americans' everyday issues like high cost of living rather than political revenge.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and his top deputies voted "present," avoiding taking a stand on the matter while allowing Republicans to more easily scuttle the resolution.
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Jeffries said in a statement that impeachment "traditionally requires a comprehensive investigative process, the collection and review of thousands of documents, an exacting scrutiny of the facts, the examination of dozens of key witnesses, congressional hearings, sustained public organizing and the marshaling of the forces of democracy to build a broad national consensus."
"None of that serious work has been done, with the Republican majority focused solely on rubber-stamping Donald Trump’s extreme agenda," senior House Democratic leaders said. "Accordingly, we will again vote 'present' on the motion to table the impeachment resolution as we continue our fight to make life more affordable for everyday Americans, while committing to holding the crooks accountable using every tool available to us beginning on day one."
But Green railed against Jeffries and other Democrats who did not vote to impeach Trump during his own comments to reporters on Monday.
"They will acknowledge that what the president is doing is impeachable, but they would have us wait. Well, the Constitution doesn't have a wait clause in it," Green said. "I believe that there are some Republicans and Democrats who are considering voting to protect the president. If they're not considering protecting him, that will be the effect of what they will do when they vote to either table or they vote to send this to a committee for further investigation."
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Green previously forced a vote to impeach Trump in June 2025, when 128 Democrats joined Republicans in voting to table the Texas progressive's resolution.
It could also be Green's last chance to protest Trump in the halls of Congress — he was among several Democratic incumbents to lose their primary races amid a wider rebellion by left-wing voters against their establishment.