Leading House Democrats are set to oppose efforts to impeach President Donald Trump.
“I have said before from this podium, this is not the right approach we should be taking,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-CA), as per The Hill. “I’ll join members of the leadership team in voting to table that motion.”
“Right now, our focus is on health care being stripped away from the American people. That is the most urgent and dire thing that we could be talking about this week,” he added. “Everything else is a distraction.”
The statement comes as Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI) moved to force the House to take up a resolution within two work days to impeach Trump. Thanedar (D-MI) introduced seven articles of impeachment against Trump last month, accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
Following the introduction of the articles, Aguilar stated, “Impeachment is, at times, a tool that can be used. This president is no stranger to that; he’s been impeached twice.”
“But we don’t have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs. And so this is not an exercise that we’re willing to undertake.”
“Right now, we will deal with the tools in front of us,” he said. “The policies that he and House Republicans have placed forward — which are reckless cuts to the health care system, to our supplemental nutrition that is relied on by women and children and families across this country — those are the policies that we’re going to push back against.” Aguilar noted the policies are the “items that the American public is paying attention to.”
