Pro-impeachment Democrats wary of Al Green’s floor vote push

House Democrats who favor an impeachment inquiry said Tuesday that Rep. Al Green’s (D-Texas) decision to force a floor vote on impeaching President Trump in the coming days won’t necessarily be helpful to their cause.

A total of 84 House Democrats, as well as independent Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.), have publicly endorsed impeachment. But House Democratic leaders remain opposed and want to build more public support with their investigations of the Trump administration before possibly moving forward with impeachment proceedings.

{mosads}Green announced Monday that he would force a House floor vote on impeachment before lawmakers leave for the August recess. He forced two votes on impeachment in the previous Congress — in December 2017 and January 2018 — when Republicans controlled the House.

Both of those procedural votes failed, but they drew support from about 60 Democrats each time.

A vote in the coming days would mark the first time the House has voted on impeachment since Democrats took over the majority in January. But with most Democrats still opposed to impeachment, a vote would put their divisions on the record.

Democrats who support impeachment said they would likely vote for Green’s effort. But they suggested his timing wasn’t ideal, given that former special counsel Robert Mueller is slated to testify before Congress next week.

“I think it might be cathartic for some members,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who supports impeachment.

But, he acknowledged, “I think the timing’s awkward with Mueller coming next week and we have a recess coming. That’s probably not the best time to do it.”

{mossecondads}House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said he would “most likely” vote in favor of Green’s resolution, as he did in the previous Congress.

But McGovern voiced concern about a lack of unity in the caucus on impeachment.

“I think it’s important to have consensus before we have a debate and a vote on that,” McGovern said.

Green said Tuesday that his impeachment measure would be similar to his previous articles of impeachment that accused Trump of inflaming racial tensions in America.

Green said he’s forcing the vote in the aftermath of Trump’s tweets targeting four progressive minority freshman lawmakers — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) — in which the president said they should “go back” to their countries, even though all are U.S. citizens.

The House is set to vote Tuesday on a resolution to formally condemn Trump’s comments as racist.

Green argued that the House should go beyond Tuesday’s resolution.

“We can do this, condemn the comments that have been made, and we can do this, impeach for the harm that the comments are causing to our society. Both of these things can be done,” Green said in a floor speech.

“There are a lot of things to do to expose the president and to change public opinion. This could be part of it, but a lot more to do,” Sherman said.

“What I’m waiting for is to see some Republican senator who takes their oath of office seriously enough to say that they would at least listen with an open mind should we bring [impeachment]. And in order to get there, we have to change public opinion,” Sherman said.