Representative Al Green shouts as President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on March 4, 2025.
Win Mcnamee | Via Reuters
Since the U.S. attack on Iran, Democrats in Congress and opponents of President Donald Trump have called the operation unconstitutional and vowed to rein in the president. But further impeachment – which the president fears if Democrats retake the US House of Representatives – has not entered serious discussion.
That could change after the midterm elections if the party wins the House of Representatives and Republicans lose their control of both chambers of Congress and the White House. Knowing he would be in Democrats’ crosshairs, Trump has expressed fear of a third impeachment trial to Republicans in Congress, telling them they must win in November.
“If you’re going to attack him, you want to make sure you don’t miss him,” Jared Leopold, a Democratic strategist who has worked on the Hill and for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, said in an interview.
House Democrats met last week to hammer out strategy for this year. They met before the new Iran war – which Trump started without seeking congressional approval – provided another possible reason for impeachment.
Impeachment tends to be unpopular with voters, and there is concern in some parts of the Democratic establishment that previous attempts to rein in Trump have failed to gain traction. He was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2019 over allegations that he withheld military aid to Ukraine to exert political pressure, and in 2021 over his actions leading up to the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2020. Both times the Senate voted to acquit.
But if Democrats win back the House, there will likely be serious pressure to impeach Trump a third time. No other president has been impeached twice.
“We are not afraid of impeachment or any other constitutional tool in our arsenal, but we have learned that impeachment is not a panacea,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said in an interview before the Iran operation.
“For us it’s not a fetish, but for us it’s not taboo either,” Raskin said. “If we believe this is the most effective way to address some of the crises facing the Republic that have been unleashed by President Trump or certain members of his Cabinet, then we need to think about it.”
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Given that any talk of impeachment is purely symbolic and Republicans control both the House and Senate, Leopold said he doesn’t expect there to be an uptick in impeachment talk in the near term.
“You saw some come out in different places and usually use the ‘I word’ as some kind of attention-grabbing tool,” Leopold said. “More than anything, people want Democrats to push back in a way that has real-world impact.
While the attack on Iran did not prompt a flood of new calls for impeachment, Democrats have threatened to impeach Trump since Trump took office last year over his attacks on Iran in 2025, his overthrow of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro without congressional approval and a range of other alleged crimes.
Rep. Maxine Waters of California, who said before Maduro’s ouster in January that she would “reconsider” her view that it was now unrealistic to seek impeachment, is now rejecting any similar effort.
“I don’t want to go there. I think we’re focused on what’s happening in Iran,” Waters said Tuesday as she left a Trump administration briefing on the Iran operation. “I think when we take control of the House, we’ll think about it.”
“High Crimes and Crimes”
Calls for impeachment have emerged on the campaign trail in recent days, potentially foreshadowing what could be a contentious issue for Democrats in 2027.
In a crowded Democratic primary for the open seat in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, three candidates demanded that Congress impeach and remove Trump.
“The morally bankrupt Trump administration teamed up with another morally bankrupt authoritarian to declare an unprovoked war on Iran that has already killed scores of civilians,” candidate Kat Abughazaleh posted on BlueSky. “We need an immediate vote in Congress on a War Powers Resolution. Then impeachment.”
Fellow candidates Evanston, Illinois Mayor Daniel K. Biss and state Sen. Laura Fine also called for Trump’s impeachment.
Before the attack on Iran, Democratic leaders considered how they could effectively rein in Trump without drowning out other issues. Party leaders have talked about prioritizing an affordability message, the same issue Republicans want Trump to focus on in the election year.
When Texas Rep. Al Green introduced a resolution to impeach Trump in December, only 140 Democrats voted against a motion to table the measure. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, whose leadership team chose not to seek votes for the resolution, was one of 47 Democrats who voted “present” and neither supported nor opposed the measure.
“What we tell our members and candidates who are running is that we have to do everything,” Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-California, said at the Democratic political retreat last week. “We need to provide oversight and accountability and talk about the affordability agenda and how we can improve people’s lives when we are given the opportunity to lead and when we are given the opportunity to govern.”
Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said at the retreat that a Democratic attempt at impeachment was all but certain. The problem, she said, will be figuring out on what grounds to impeach. Jeffries “won’t just be a freebie for everyone,” she said.
“I think the difficulty would be narrowing down the number of felonies and misdemeanors. Because I think there are a lot of felonies and misdemeanors,” Ross said.