House blocks effort to impeach

The House easily killed a maverick Democrat’s effort Wednesday to impeach President Trump for his recent racial insults against lawmakers of color, in a vote that provided an early snapshot of just how divided Democrats are over trying to oust him in the shadow of the 2020 elections.

Democrats leaned against the resolution by Texas Rep. Al Green by about a 32 margin as the overall chamber killed the measure 33295. The vote showed that so far, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been successful in her effort to prevent a Democratic stampede toward impeachment before additional evidence is developed that could win over a public that has so far been skeptical about ousting Trump.

Even so, the numbers also showed that the number of Democrats open to impeachment remains substantial. About two dozen more conversions would split the party’s caucus in half over an issue that could potentially dominate next year’s presidential and congressional campaigns.

Every voting Republican favored derailing Green’s measure.

Pelosi and other party leaders considered his resolution a premature exercise that needlessly forced vulnerable swingdistrict lawmakers to cast a perilous and divisive vote. It also risked deepening Democrats’ already raw rift over impeachment, dozens of the party’s most liberal lawmakers itching to oust Trump.

Recent polling has shown solid majorities oppose impeachment. Even if the Democraticrun House would vote to impeach Trump, the equivalent of filing formal charges, a trial by the Republicanled Senate would all but certainly acquit him, keeping him in office.