President Trump has survived another impeachment threat, with vulnerable Democrats helping to stop the doomed effort from proceeding.
In an embarrassing spectacle, 128 Democrats were left scrambling to escape the blast radius of another political grenade lobbed by Al Green (D-TX).
The perennial rabblerouser forced lawmakers to vote on his resolution, which was centered on Trump's strikes against Iran.
“I believe that this country has come too far to allow a single person to declare war without conferring with the Congress of the United States of America,” Green said during a speech on the House floor, calling Trump an “authoritarian president” and “would-be dictator.”
Green has been trying to impeach Trump since his first term, and each time the effort has gone nowhere.
128 Democrats, including party leaders like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca.), voted to block Green's latest impeachment resolution, while 79 Democrats, mainly progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Ny.) and Jasmine Crockett (D-Tx.) voted to charge ahead.
The spectacle infuriated many Democrats, who blamed Green for hurting their already tarnished image with a selfish stunt.
"A completely unserious and selfish move," one House Democrat told Axios.
You could say that Green exposed his party's hypocrisy - after all, Democrats have claimed over and over that Trump is violating the Constitution, but apparently, he's not "authoritarian" enough to merit impeachment.
Of course, there's a smart way to go about things, and Dems would be foolish to go along with an effort that is doomed to fail. It's not like Democrats haven't tried impeaching Trump before - they did, twice, and failed both times - and there's no chance of a third effort succeeding when they are in the opposition.
On a basic level, this is simply bad optics for a party that is already perceived as out of touch with the electorate. The merits of Green's impeachment are also dubious, not that Green needed a good reason to pull the trigger.
As one House Democrat admitted to Axios, the debate over constitutional war powers is "fiercely contested." Trump is the commander-in-chief, after all.
This isn't the first time Green has caused headaches for his party. In March, he was infamously dragged out of the House Chamber after he disrupted Trump's speech. The House later voted to censure Green, who is 77, over the outburst.
Unfortunately for Democrats, Green has no regrets about his latest stunt, so he'll probably try something like this again.
