House Kills Al Green Resolution to Impeach Trump, 147 Democrats Vote to Keep It Alive

The U.S. House killed a resolution brought forward by Rep. Al Green (D-TX) to impeach President Trump on Tuesday.

The House approved a Republican motion to table the resolution brought forth by Al Green with a 232-147 vote. Another 47 lawmakers voted present, per CBS News:

Green’s resolution sought to impeach Mr. Trump over the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. He cited the killings of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero by federal immigration agents this year.

House Democratic leadership did not whip the vote, but announced in a joint statement on Monday that they would vote “present” on the motion to table Green’s impeachment resolution.

Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that “none of the serious work” for impeachment has been done to warrant Green’s resolution.

“Impeachment is a sacred constitutional vehicle designed to hold a corrupt executive accountable for abuse of power, breaking the law and violating the public trust,” Jeffries said on Tuesday. “The effort 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,” he added.

Green introduced the bill after losing the primary in his Houston-area district and will be leaving Congress this coming January. He was also censured by the House last year for routinely interrupting the president during his address to a joint session of Congress.

As noted by The Hill, impeaching Trump may prove to be a sticky situation for Democrats as it “risks distracting from the broader economic message, which has a better chance of resonating with moderate and independent voters who might want a check on Trump, but don’t support ousting him altogether.”

“Some Democrats are also worried that impeaching Trump would only animate the president’s supporters to get to the polls, making it tougher for Democrats to flip the House in the midterms,” it added.