Trump Impeachment Push Collapses as 64 House Democrats Decline to Back Al Green’s Effort

The House voted to shelve Rep. Al Green’s latest attempt to impeach President Donald Trump, exposing divisions among Democrats just weeks before voters decide control of Congress.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2026 — A new effort to impeach President Donald Trump collapsed in the House after dozens of Democrats declined to support Rep. Al Green’s attempt to advance the measure.

The House voted Tuesday to table Green’s impeachment resolution by 232–147, with another 47 lawmakers voting present and seven members not voting, according to the official House roll call.

Republicans overwhelmingly supported shelving the measure. The official tally shows 213 Republicans voting to table it, while one Republican voted present and four Republicans did not participate in the vote.

Democrats were considerably more divided: 18 voted to table Green’s resolution, 147 opposed the motion to table it, 46 voted present and three did not vote.

That explains the widely circulated figure of 64 House Democrats: it combines the 18 Democrats who actively supported tabling the measure with the 46 who registered themselves as present.

 

 

 

The procedural distinction matters. Lawmakers did not vote directly on whether Trump should be impeached; instead, they voted on a Republican motion to table, or set aside, Green’s resolution.

Once the motion to table passed, the impeachment measure was effectively removed from immediate consideration, preventing the House from proceeding to a direct vote on Green’s accusations against the president.

Green, a Texas Democrat and longtime Trump critic, introduced H.Res. 1486 as a privileged resolution, a parliamentary designation that allowed him to force congressional action despite lacking leadership support.

His resolution accused Trump of high crimes and misdemeanors related to the administration’s immigration enforcement, arguing federal agencies had operated with insufficient regard for constitutional protections and due process.

Green specifically cited the deaths of Renee Good, Alex Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero in incidents involving federal immigration agents during 2026.

The resolution did not have the backing of House Democratic leadership, creating an unusual situation in which members had to respond to an impeachment effort their own leadership had not initiated.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar announced before the vote that they intended to vote present rather than support Green’s approach.

Their stated objection centered on process. Democratic leaders argued impeachment traditionally requires extensive investigation, congressional hearings, document collection, witness testimony and a substantial factual record before the House considers such extraordinary action.

They said that investigative groundwork had not occurred in Green’s latest effort, while maintaining that impeachment remains a legitimate constitutional mechanism for addressing presidential abuses when supported by sufficient evidence.

 

 

 

The vote therefore should not automatically be interpreted as 64 Democrats endorsing Trump or concluding that his conduct is beyond impeachment. Democratic leaders explicitly left open broader questions of accountability.

Jeffries has not categorically ruled out impeachment proceedings if Democrats regain control of the House, while Aguilar said Tuesday that impeachment is currently not near the top of Democrats’ agenda.

Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who could lead the Judiciary Committee under a Democratic majority, has separately said Democrats would not hesitate to use impeachment if circumstances warranted it.

That possibility gives Tuesday’s vote additional significance because the November midterm elections will determine whether Republicans continue controlling the chamber or Democrats gain the authority to launch committee investigations themselves.

For Democratic leaders, the immediate political challenge is timing. Green’s resolution arrived shortly before the midterms, when the party has emphasized affordability, economic concerns and its campaign to capture the House majority.

The Washington Post reported that Democrats sought to avoid injecting an explosive impeachment battle into the campaign, particularly when the effort was virtually certain to fail in the Republican-controlled Congress.

Green has pursued impeachment repeatedly during both Trump presidencies. The latest resolution represents his eighth impeachment effort overall and fourth since Trump returned to the White House, according to the Post.

Trump was previously impeached twice during his first presidency, first in 2019 and again following the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack. The Senate did not convict him in either proceeding.

Green’s latest attempt never reached that stage. The House’s procedural vote ended the immediate effort before lawmakers were required to cast a direct vote on the articles themselves.

The episode nevertheless demonstrated that a substantial group of Democrats remains willing to advance impeachment: 147 Democrats voted against tabling, meaning they opposed stopping Green’s resolution at that procedural stage.

At the same time, the 64 Democrats who either voted to table or voted present gave Republicans enough room to dispose of the measure without forcing Democratic leadership into a direct impeachment vote.

The result leaves both sides with different interpretations. Republicans can point to bipartisan participation in stopping Green’s effort, while Democrats can note that most of their caucus opposed the motion to table.

What the official record establishes is narrower: H.Res. 1486 was tabled, Trump was not impeached, and 64 Democrats either supported tabling the resolution or chose to vote present.

The larger impeachment question could return after November, particularly if control of the House changes and Democratic-led committees conduct investigations that party leaders say were missing from Green’s current effort.

For now, however, Green’s latest push is over — and the 232–147 vote demonstrates that Democrats remain sharply divided over whether impeachment should become part of their strategy against Trump.