House kills bid to impeach Trump as Democrats split

• The House voted 232-147 to kill a Democratic attempt to impeach President Trump over immigration policies and shootings, with many Democrats splitting and voting "present".
• Top House Democrats opposed the impeachment bid due to lack of formal investigation and hearings, aiming to keep focus on economy and midterm elections.
• The vote revealed party divisions on impeachment strategy, reflecting Democrats' struggle between energising their base and appealing to moderate voters ahead of November.

WASHINGTON – The House on Sept 15 killed a Democratic attempt to impeach President Donald Trump over his administration’s immigration crackdown and deadly shootings involving federal immigration agents, as Democrats split over whether to allow the effort to move forward.

The majority of Democrats opposed a Republican bid to quash the impeachment measure, which was introduced by Representative Al Green of Texas.

But dozens of them, including the party’s three House leaders, voted “present”, declining to take a position in a reflection of the dilemma the issue presented as Democrats campaign to take the majority in the mid-term elections.

Even as they have regularly condemned Trump as corrupt and his actions as unlawful, Democratic leaders have tried to keep the party’s message focused on the high cost of living and the economy.

Some rank-and-file lawmakers, particularly those in competitive or conservative-leaning districts, have argued that calls for impeachment are a distraction from issues of more concern to a broad swathe of voters.

Many in the Democratic base, however, have demanded that their elected representatives challenge the president more aggressively.

The top three House Democrats said night of Sept 14 that they would not support Green’s resolution because he did not undertake a formal impeachment, including a “comprehensive investigative process” or hearings, before bringing his charge to the floor.

“None of that serious work has been done, with the Republican majority focused solely on rubber stamping Donald Trump’s extreme agenda,” Democrats – Representatives Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California – said in a statement.

But the 232-147 vote to table the impeachment articles highlighted divisions that the party will need to confront if it wins the House majority and considers using its power to check Trump.

Ultimately, 18 Democrats voted with Republicans to table Green’s articles of impeachment, while 46 Democrats, including Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar, voted “present”.

They were joined by Representative Thomas Massie, who is a frequent critic and target of the president and who separately moved Sept 15 to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Green, who will leave Congress at the end of the year after losing a primary in a seat Republicans redistricted, has repeatedly defied his party’s leaders and moved to impeach Trump, including twice in 2025. All of his efforts have been defeated in bipartisan procedural votes.

In a speech on the House floor, Green acknowledged he had been “a proponent of impeachment for years”. But he also took a swipe at members of his party who did not back his effort, saying that “anything other than a vote to impeach” Trump was akin to supporting the president.

“It is hard for me to believe that we have Democrats who are going to vote to maintain the president in office,” he said.

The vote on Sept 15 suggested a continued shift in Democrats’ approach, particularly as they prepare for potential control of the House and try to animate their base to vote in November.

When Green tried to impeach Trump in June 2025 over military strikes in Iran, most Democrats voted with Republicans to kill the measure.

When Green introduced an impeachment effort months later accusing Trump of inciting violence and threats against lawmakers and judges, most Democrats voted against Republicans’ efforts to kill it.

Representative Adelita Grijalva, said that she believed Trump deserved to be impeached and rejected the idea of voting “present” over procedural concerns. “I think that my constituents in southern Arizona sent me here to vote yea or nay, and that’s what I’m going to do,” she said.

The vote reflected a shift among Democrats, who spent much of the first year of Trump’s second term pointedly avoiding impeachment talk out of concern that their two efforts to remove the president during his first term may have politically benefited Trump and contributed to his return to power.

As Republicans try to hold onto their narrow majority, they have highlighted Democrats’ support for impeachment as part of an effort to present them as radical. NEW YORK TIMES

• Olivia Diaz contributed reporting
• This article originally appeared in The New York Times.