Progressives have been pressuring their fellow Democrats to try and impeach President Donald Trump, while more centrist members of the party are dismissing the move as futile and counterproductive, NBC News reported on Tuesday.
"They're massively unhelpful, and they just fire up the base," said one moderate House Democrat who opposed the recent impeachment efforts that have split the party.
A second centrist Democrat called them a "waste of time," saying that "even people that voted 'no' on it, they don't really want to impeach Trump. But they have to feed the left-wing base."
The second Democrat, who spoke anonymously, added that "they don't want to have to go home and answer questions why they didn't vote for impeachment."
That lawmaker told NBC News that impeachment should only be attempted after carrying out a committee probe and hearings, which won't happen until Democrats win back the majority, since no such vote will pass as long as the GOP controls the House.
"If you respect the process here, you don't go right to an impeachment vote," the lawmaker said. "You go through a process, and then you have an impeachment vote. So let's go through that process."
There was an impeachment vote last month forced by Texas Rep. Al Green after Democrats managed a month earlier to convince another party member to back off an impeachment push at the last minute.
Last month's impeachment resolution failed on a 344-79 vote, with 128 Democrats joining all Republicans to table the measure.
But Green said he had no regrets about forcing the impeachment vote and promised to do it again.
"I can't say that he committed an impeachable offense and then not vote to impeach. I have a conscience; it's a vote of conscience. And I say to members, 'Vote your conscience,'" Green told NBC News. "By the way, I'm going to bring articles against him again. Those were not the last."
He said he respected the views of colleagues who believe that political "tactics supersede the Constitution." But he felt he had no choice but to act on impeachment.
"A person who breaches the Constitution that the courts can't manage and their party won't manage, then there's but one option left," Green added. "And the Constitution is kind of important."
Some freshman congressmen have been concerned about the optics of Democrats being publicly split over impeaching Trump, but one who represents a progressive district said they are getting inundated with calls from constituents who want Democrats to fight harder. The lawmaker said "they aren't buying that just because we are in the minority, we can't do anything. The truth is we can. And we should."
However, the Democrat leadership has shied away from the issue, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries having dodged the question at various times this year of whether he supports impeaching the president.
However, Jeffries and his top Democrat associates all voted to table the Green resolution.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.