As Democratic leaders publicly shoot down impeachment talk, members of the House Judiciary Committee are building a plan behind the scenes for impeaching President Trump, weighing all constitutional tools available to them in case Democrats win in 2018.
Judiciary Committee Democrats have decided it’s time to start getting serious about an impeachment strategy. The committee’s Republican chairman, unlike his Senate counterpart, has not engaged in any investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and is mum on the subject.
Up to this point, talk of drafting articles of impeachment has remained limited to a handful of Democrats.
“Several members of the Judiciary Committee have determined it’s important that all committee Democrats meet to discuss the emergency of our committee to hold the president accountable for his actions,” one Democratic member on Judiciary told the Washington Examiner.
“The more out of control the president gets the more all actions should be on the table,” the member added, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Democratic leaders have advised their members to steer clear of impeachment, urging them to focus on policy and lifting up the party’s economic message heading into 2018. When asked about impeachment, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif has pivoted to pitch Democrats’ Better Deal plan. And the rest of her leadership team is in lock-step, calling impeachment efforts “premature.”
The concern: If Democrats rally behind impeachment they won’t just wake up their base, they’ll wake up President Trump’s, jeopardizing their chances of taking back the House in 2018. (Though a recent poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, found 49 percent of voters support impeaching Trump.)
Right now impeachment resolutions have no way of advancing because Republicans control everything. But if Democrats win the House in 2018 the ability to exert a check on the president won’t be a far-flung fantasy. Those on the Judiciary Committee — where impeachment resolutions are usually referred to, investigated, and if warranted debated in a full hearing — don’t want to be caught without a plan.
“There’s a growing sense on the committee that we need a unified and disciplined examination of what are the constitutional tools available to us,” a second Judiciary Democrat said in an interview.
The member added that there’s a “rising sentiment for impeachment” among Democrats.
“[On] one hand we have to get ready for what might happen — either in an immediate crisis or after the elections — and, wanting to make sure whatever we do strengthens our political case in 2018 and not weaken it,” the member said.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Rep. Luis Gutierrez D-Ill. said he’s working with a group of his colleagues to “present articles of impeachment before Thanksgiving,” but he didn’t say if it was a part of the united effort underway among Judiciary Democrats. Gutierrez sits on the committee.
“We’ve gathered together some of the most best-informed scholars on constitutional issues especially around impeachment and I assure you we will not leave you lacking for reason to impeach the president of the United States,” he added.
Rep. Steve Cohen D-Tenn., another member of Judiciary, has also threatened to draft articles. And Reps. Brad Sherman D-Calif. and Al Green D-Texas, have already introduced their own. The House nearly voted on Green’s resolution but he backed off at the last minute under pressure from his party. The vote would have put Democrats on the record on impeachment, causing potential problems with voters in 2018.
But the more organized effort that’s afoot isn’t about symbolic votes. Instead, it’s about putting a plan of action in place if special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and the Russian government finds a smoking gun.
Mueller’s investigation produced its first indictments on Monday, with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort among those facing charges.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of Judiciary, said his concern is about maintaining “cohesion and coordination.”
“Many members are undertaking a systematic [evaluation] of the constitutional principles that operate in this environment and historical precedents that are relevant to where we are,” the Maryland Democrat said in an interview. Raskin has a bill of his own that’s garnered 35 co-sponsors.
Raskin’s bill sets up a “body” by Congress under the 25th amendment. The 25th amendment offers an alternative option to impeachment. It says that the vice president and a majority of the body to be set up by Congress can determine a president’s inability. “My legislation just sets up the body — it doesn’t mention Trump’s name — and so it’s prepared to act in the event of an emergency.”
Raskin’s bill is just one option Judiciary Democrats are looking at as they craft a strategy should circumstances in the investigation or their party’s political fortunes change.
It would still require a two-thirds majority in the Senate to remove the president from office even if he was impeached by the full House. Such an effort failed against President Clinton in 1999 despite Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
“We’re in the analysis stage,” Raskin said walking into the chamber. He paused just beyond the door, spun around, poked his head back out and said with a grin, “We’re in the serious analysis stage.”
