Support among House Democrats for impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is skyrocketing, nearly doubling in the last week to 100 co-sponsors.
That’s an unprecedented level of support for an impeachment effort during President Trump’s second term, with lawmakers who have bristled at the topic in the past now warming to the idea.
Kelly is urging Republicans to get on board with her efforts — even as no GOP lawmaker has come close to expressing support for Noem’s impeachment.
“As Secretary Noem continues to lie, obstruct Congress, and violate people’s civil rights, the support for her impeachment only grows,” she said.
The impeachment process is complicated and difficult (by design). Congress is split in two parts, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Anyone in the House can introduce a bill to impeach someone (bring them to trial). But in order for anything to happen, you need a majority vote to adopt that bill. It then gets sent to the Senate, where they have another majority vote to decide if there will be a trial. If and only if there’s a trial, you need a 2/3 majority vote in the Senate to convict. This has happened exactly 8 times in the history of the United States, and never for a sitting president.
If you don’t have at least a majority in both parts of Congress, it’s basically pointless. Introducing an impeachment bill becomes a symbolic gesture. All the voters hear is “Democrats tried to impeach, and failed. Again.” This demoralizes Democrat voters and energizes Republican voters.
So, yeah, a lot of Democrat politicians aren’t on board because they already know how this will play out.
I don’t know. I find it much more demoralizing when they’re not even willing to make an attempt.