In a display that many are calling political theater at its most tone-deaf, Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar of Michigan abruptly canceled his push to impeach President Donald Trump\u2014just hours before the vote was supposed to happen on the House floor. The move came after fierce backlash, not from Republicans, but from his own Democratic colleagues who saw the effort as ill-timed, ill-conceived, and dead on arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resolution included seven articles of impeachment accusing Trump of everything from abuse of power to foreign corruption. But in a Republican-controlled House and Senate, the effort stood no chance of passing. That didn\u2019t stop Thanedar, who seemed determined to press forward until he was essentially told to stand down by his own party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAfter talking with many colleagues, I have decided not to force a vote on impeachment today,\u201d Thanedar posted on X. \u201cInstead, I will add to my articles of impeachment and continue to rally the support of both Democrats and Republicans to defend the Constitution with me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea that any Republicans\u2014let alone enough to matter\u2014would suddenly rally behind an impeachment resolution introduced without party support and while Trump is polling ahead in most battleground states, seems less like a strategy and more like a political fantasy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thanedar\u2019s plan not only lacked bipartisan support, it barely had Democratic support. According to Axios, around 50 Democrats swarmed Thanedar on the House floor before the vote, essentially staging an intervention. One lawmaker told him bluntly, \u201cIf you do this, there\u2019s not going to be anyone here in the caucus that wants to have anything to do with you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representative Jerry Nadler called the move \u201cidiotic.\u201d Even Nancy Pelosi, who led two impeachment efforts against Trump during his first term, reportedly sided with Nadler in condemning the plan. Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar dismissed it as \u201cdoomed\u201d and \u201cunserious.\u201d Several Democratic co-sponsors had already quietly backed out, claiming they were added by mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jamie Raskin, who actually managed one of Trump\u2019s previous impeachments, gave Thanedar a civics lesson in real time: \u201cIt\u2019s not enough to be right,\u201d Raskin said. \u201cThe Constitution demands that you go and work with other people to promote the consensus.\u201d Translation: This isn\u2019t going anywhere\u2014because we don\u2019t have the votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The articles of impeachment accused Trump of a wide range of offenses: misusing trade powers, banning press outlets from the White House, deporting a man to the wrong country, and accepting a $400 million Boeing 747-8 jet from Qatar. Thanedar claimed this was part of a broader plan to use the jet as Air Force One during Trump\u2019s presidency, then later transfer it to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the fifteen days since I filed seven articles of impeachment against President Trump, he has committed more impeachable offenses,\u201d Thanedar claimed. \u201cMost dangerously, accepting a $400 million private jet from Qatar, which even Republican Members of Congress have called wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem? None of these charges have been vetted by committees, and no formal investigations have taken place. As Representative Hank Johnson put it, \u201cThere have been no hearings\u2026 and this is just a procedure that\u2019s meaningless at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unsurprisingly, Trump and his allies wasted no time swatting down the attempt. Speaking from his overseas trip in Doha, Trump made no public statement about the vote itself, but the White House issued a sharp rebuke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvery action taken by President Trump and his administration is fully lawful and firmly rooted in the will of the American people,\u201d said White House spokesperson Liz Huston. \u201cThis desperate impeachment stunt is nothing more than a reckless political act that the American people see right through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
House Speaker Mike Johnson called the effort \u201canother embarrassing political stunt\u201d and accused Democrats of being more interested in \u201cthrowing fits\u201d and \u201cplaying political games\u201d than governing. \u201cThe contrast has never been more clear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even among Democrats who can\u2019t stand Trump, the strategy made little sense. With Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, the resolution had zero path to success. Many saw it as a distraction from battles that could actually be won, like fighting Republican efforts to cut federal benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representative Pete Aguilar, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said bluntly, \u201cRight now, our focus is on health care being stripped away from the American people. That is the most urgent and dire thing that we could be talking about this week. Everything else is a distraction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez agreed, saying that with 13.7 million Americans at risk of losing health insurance, \u201cour central focus\u201d needed to be elsewhere. Yet somehow, Thanedar thought this was the moment to launch an impeachment resolution with no hearings, no votes lined up, and no plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Representative Al Green of Texas, who has teased his own articles of impeachment, says he still plans to move forward. Asked whether he\u2019s concerned about facing the same backlash Thanedar did, Green shrugged it off. \u201cI\u2019m already working on multiple articles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Thanedar insists this isn\u2019t about politics but principle. \u201cWe can\u2019t worry about whether we\u2019re going to win this battle,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s more about doing the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even some in his district are skeptical. Thanedar, who took over a Detroit-area seat long represented by Black lawmakers, is facing multiple challengers in the upcoming primary. Some see his impeachment crusade as more about building a national profile than addressing local issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Democrats like Steve Bannon\u2014who warned on his podcast that if the party wins back the House in 2026, another Trump impeachment will be first on the list\u2014believe this is just the beginning. \u201cThe first thing Hakeem Jeffries will do in early 2027 is move to impeach Donald Trump,\u201d Bannon said. \u201cTrust me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The fact that a Democrat tried to impeach a Republican president with no support, no hearings, and no control of either chamber of Congress isn\u2019t just bold\u2014it borders on absurd. It also reveals the deep divisions within the Democratic Party, as well as a growing desperation to take down Trump by any means, no matter how unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anything, this latest failed attempt may strengthen Trump\u2019s hand by making his opponents look disorganized and out of touch. As Thanedar retreats to revise his resolution, one thing is clear: if this was a test balloon, it popped before it even got off the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Impeachment Plot Collapses in Real Time In a display that many are calling political theater at its most tone-deaf, Democratic Representative Shri Thanedar of Michigan abruptly canceled his push to impeach President Donald Trump\u2014just hours before the vote was supposed to happen on the House floor. The move came after fierce backlash, not from Republicans, but from his own Democratic colleagues who saw the effort as ill-timed, ill-conceived, and dead on arrival. The resolution included seven articles of impeachment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6088,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,18,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democrats","category-politics","category-trump"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/impeachtrumpasdfasf.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6089,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6087\/revisions\/6089"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nakedpolitics.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}