The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly torpedoed an effort by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) to impeach President Trump over the U.S. strikes on Iran, underscoring how little appetite Democrats have to try and oust the president despite their frustration with the weekend attack.
The chamber voted 344-79 to table Green’s resolution, which charges Trump with abuse of power. One hundred-twenty eight Democrats — including the caucus’s top three leaders voted with Republicans to table the measure, while 79 Democrats voted against the effort, pushing for the chamber to hold a vote on the resolution.
Green for months has sought to trigger a vote on impeaching Trump, slamming his handling of both foreign and domestic policy issues.
The congressman on Tuesday reupped that effort, filing and forcing a vote on a resolution accusing Trump of failing to seek authorization from Congress before striking three sites in Iran over the weekend, which Democrats have taken issue with.
“In his conduct of the office of President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, abused the powers of the presidency when he disregarded the doctrine of separation of powers by usurping Congress’s power to declare war and ordered the United States military to bomb another country without the constitutionally mandated congressional authorization or notice to Congress cognizant of the fact that should another country’s military bomb a facility within the United States of America, it would be a de facto declaration of war against the United States of America,” the impeachment resolution reads.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other top Republicans have backed up the president, arguing that he had the authority to execute the strike through his Article II powers as commander-in-chief.
“Let me be clear and be as clear as possible: The strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities were clearly within President Trump’s Article II powers as Commander in Chief,” Johnson, who previously practiced Constitutional law, said on Tuesday. “It shouldn’t even be in dispute.”
Despite that defense, however, Democrats and some Republicans have criticized Trump’s strike, with some saying impeachment is warranted. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who voted against tabling the resolution on Tuesday, said the strikes were grounds for impeachment over the weekend.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of the most vocal advocates against U.S. involvement in Iran, meanwhile, wrote in a statement that the strikes were “not Constitutional.” He is teaming up with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on a war powers resolution to prevent more U.S. intervention in Iran.
Top national security Democrats in the House have also introduced their own measure.
Following Tuesday’s vote, the White House touted Trump’s efforts in the Middle East.
“President Trump was able to quickly accomplish what no other President has been able to achieve – thanks to his ‘peace through strength’ leadership, Iran’s nuclear program has been obliterated and a ceasefire has been agreed to. Eliminating the prospect of nuclear war is a non-partisan and unifying accomplishment that everyone should celebrate as a historic moment for United States, the Middle East, and the entire world,” White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers said in a statement to The Hill.
Updated at 3:48 p.m.
