Top Democrat shoots down impeachment efforts against Trump

The chair of the House Democratic Caucus on Tuesday rejected the efforts by some lawmakers in the party to impeach President Trump.

Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) did not go so far as to say that Trump has not committed impeachable offenses in his first 100 days back in office. But with Republicans controlling both the House and the Senate, Aguilar suggested the move is simply impractical.

“Impeachment is, at times, a tool that can be used. This president is no stranger to that; he's been impeached twice,” Aguilar told reporters in the Capitol. “But we don't have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs. And so this is not an exercise that we're willing to undertake."

A day earlier, Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) filed seven articles of impeachment against Trump for actions he’s taken since January, including the wrongful deportation of a Maryland man to El Salvador and efforts to slash government spending without congressional approval.

Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), another sharp Trump critic, has said he also plans to file impeachment articles at some point.

The impeachment talk has ramped up amid liberal criticisms that Capitol Hill Democrats haven’t been aggressive enough in combating Trump in the early months of his second term. Democratic leaders, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), have rejected that characterization, pointing to a host of actions — from field hearings and rallies, to sit-ins and town halls in GOP districts — that Democrats have conducted to get their message out to voters. 

“And we're going to continue to show up, stand up and speak up in a variety of ways inside the Capitol, outside the Capitol, on the Capitol steps, in Democratic districts and Republican districts and throughout America,” Jeffries said Monday.

Aguilar on Tuesday offered a similar message, saying Democrats will focus their energies on highlighting the unpopular elements of Trump’s policy agenda — including Medicaid cuts and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans — rather than impeachment.

“Right now, we will deal with the tools in front of us,” Aguilar said. “The policies that he and House Republicans have placed forward — which are reckless cuts to the health care system, to our supplemental nutrition that is relied on by women and children and families across this country — those are the policies that we're going to push back against. 

“And those are the items that the American public is paying attention to.”