Emanuel Tells Democrats Not to Impeach Trump if They Win the House

Rahm Emanuel, the former Chicago mayor and Obama White House chief of staff, urged Democrats on Sunday not to try to impeach President Donald Trump if they win the House next month. Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," he said the party should pursue an ethics overhaul instead.

Asked directly about impeachment by host Kristen Welker, Emanuel did not hedge. "Short answer: No, because it's not going anywhere, and it's going to be a food fight, and it's just going to be we return to the politics of fighting," he said. "You're never going to get an impeachment. Then if you do that, you just basically prove all Washington is what the American people think. It's Disneyland on the Potomac. Deliver the change. Deliver a comprehensive ethics package that uses the investigations to then deliver change."

The comments land at a delicate moment for the party. According to the Fox News report, Democrats are projected to win 215 House seats to 201 for Republicans, which would leave them needing only three more of the 19 possible toss-up races to clinch a majority. Republicans would have to win at least 17 of those contests. Trump has been telling rally crowds that Democrats will impeach him if they take Congress.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has declined to say whether he would support impeachment proceedings. Jeffries told NBC in June, "We haven't ruled anything in or ruled anything out in terms of accountability. What we have said is that our focus is going to be to make life more affordable for the American people. We have to drive down the high cost of living."

Emanuel laid out a five-point anti-corruption plan on the program: a stock-trading ban for all three branches of government, no prediction-market participation for anyone in those branches, a retirement age of 75, a mandatory blind trust, and a two-year bar on working for foreign governments after leaving office. He called the midterms "a referendum election on President Trump," but argued Democrats must show what they would do with power.

He also pressed his case against the party's left flank. Asked about the Democratic Socialists, who have won a string of primaries this year, he said they are "their own party." "They believe in defunding the police. That's just not a Democratic position. They believe in open borders. That is not a Democratic Party position," he said, adding that if they change those positions, "we can have a conversation." He told Fox News Digital last week that Democrats can have a healthy debate between the progressive and pragmatic wings, which is "what a coalition party looks like."

Emanuel, who served two terms as mayor of Chicago, is one of several prominent Democrats rumored to be considering a 2028 presidential run. He has praised Texas Senate nominee James Talarico as "strong" and has voiced support for Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed, despite his criticism of the party's left. On health care, he argued for letting early retirees aged 58 and up buy into Medicare as a first step, and for moving members of Congress and federal employees into the same exchanges as everyone else. A win in the House would give Democrats subpoena power over the administration, and Emanuel's message was that they should use it to legislate rather than to relitigate the past.