Former Vice President Kamala Harris is urging her party to resist the temptation to launch a third impeachment drive against President Donald Trump, even if Democrats reclaim the House of Representatives in next weeks midterm elections.
According to the New York Post, Harris argued that Democrats should avoid repeating the failed impeachment spectacles that galvanized Republican voters and left Trump ultimately strengthened. Speaking with MeidasTouchs Aaron Parnas on Tuesday, she warned that another impeachment push would squander political capital and distract from other priorities.
I think that going in the direction of impeachment is not a good idea, just to be honest with you, just because we have limited resources, Harris said, signaling a rare note of restraint from a leading Democrat who built her national profile attacking Trump. I think the energy and the resources need to be put into accountability, need to be put into investigations, she added. And thats where the time should be spent.
Harris, who helped drive the previous impeachment efforts, now appears to recognize the political futility of such moves in a closely divided Congress. Remember, I was in the Senate for the last go-round, and the votes arent there, Harris emphasized, acknowledging what conservatives have long argued: impeachment has become a partisan stunt, not a serious constitutional remedy.
She went on to say, So, thats how I feel, but you know, also I think after the election, we all have to just also agree that our attitude has to be to get stuff done, and the tone and our kind of orientation around it has to be kind of ruthless. Harris then took aim at Republicans, declaring, Theyre [Republicans are] ruthless, but theyre cruel. And when I say we should be ruthless, I dont mean cruel, but we should be uncompromising.
Her comments underscore the lefts ongoing effort to paint conservatives as morally suspect, even while she counsels tactical moderation on impeachment. Trump survived two impeachment attempts during his first term, both of which failed to secure a conviction in the Senate despite relentless media support and unified Democratic pressure.
Harris, then a senator, voted to convict Trump over an alleged quid pro quo involving Ukraine aid, and later, as vice president, presided over the Senate during his second impeachment trial for allegedly inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has been less dismissive of the impeachment option, keeping the door open to further partisan warfare.
He has said Democrats havent ruled anything in, and we havent ruled anything out regarding Trump, while signaling that other officials, including War Secretary Pete Hegseth, are likely targets. The constitutional bar for removing a president remains high, requiring a two-thirds vote in the Senate for conviction, a threshold that has not been within reach for either party in decades.
Neither party has held a Senate supermajority since the mid-1960s, when Democrats briefly controlled 68 of 100 seats, making modern impeachment drives largely symbolic and deeply polarizing. Even some prominent figures on the left now concede that impeaching Trump again would be political theater rather than serious governance.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told left-wing journalist Kara Swisher last week, I am against impeaching Donald Trump because I think its a sideshow and he cant get convicted. Clinton, however, echoed the broader Democratic strategy of targeting conservative officials around Trumps administration.
But I am in favor of opening impeachment investigations into some of the elected officials or the appointed officials, she added. People like Pete Hegseth, who I think is hollowing out our military, politicizing our military, turning it into a militia for his Christian national ambitions.
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