In the immediate aftermath of yet another assassination attempt against President Donald Trump, Democrats rushed out the usual talking points about unity and dialing down the rhetoric. You’ve seen the statements — polished, predictable, and completely at odds with the tone they’ve set for years. It’s a familiar play: project civility in public while hoping the moment passes before anyone connects the dots. And right on cue, less than 24 hours after a gunman stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries went on Fox News Sunday to insist that impeachment isn’t even on the agenda.
Sure, Hakeem. Sure.
On Sunday, Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Jeffries point-blank whether impeachment would be his party's top item if Democrats flip the House in November. She even cited an Axios report detailing a "Day One" impeachment push, with members urging leadership to start building the case now.
Jeffries' answer? "Of course not."
He pivoted immediately to his economic stump speech. "I've made clear from the very beginning that our top priority is going to be to drive down the high cost of living," Jeffries said. "We believe in this country. You work hard, you play by the rules. You should be able to live an affordable life, a comfortable life, in fact, to live the good life. And that means a good-paying job and good housing. Good health care, good education for your children. And when it's all said and done, a good retirement."
Because they did such a good job of that under Biden? The problem is that this is the same Hakeem Jeffries who, just weeks earlier, suggested "strong support" among lawmakers for action against Trump as the Iran war dragged on—the same Democrats who spent the better part of this year seriously debating the 25th Amendment. Jeffries himself scheduled a briefing on the topic for House Democrats, hosted by Rep. Jamie Raskin, as rank-and-file members openly called for Trump's removal.
But he wants us to believe that Democrats are really focused on the economy? Get real.
Back in January, Trump told House Republicans bluntly that he fully expects to be impeached the moment Democrats take the gavel. He wasn't wrong then. And Jeffries' Sunday performance doesn't change that calculus one bit.
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Democrats haven't abandoned the impeachment ambition — they've shelved it temporarily because they know they don't have the votes. Remember, Nancy Pelosi made it perfectly clear after the first impeachment back in 2020 that getting the votes for a conviction was never really the point. "He's been impeached forever," Pelosi said. "They can never erase that." They think they’re putting a black mark on his legacy. Well, how’d that work out? Did the first two impeachments stop him from returning to office in 2024? Nope. Does anyone really think Democrats are worried about impeachment succeeding in removing Trump? I don’t.
That's the quiet part Jeffries won't say out loud. It was never about removing Trump from office. It's about the scarlet letter — another impeachment on the record, another news cycle, another entry in the history books. The Democrats who were demanding Day One impeachment hearings didn't suddenly discover restraint.
I suspect they're reading the room after the Correspondents' Dinner shooting and calculating that now is not the moment to look like they want the president dead politically after someone literally just tried to kill him physically.
