Raskin Says Trump Has 'Undoubtedly' Committed Impeachable Offenses. He Also Says It Isn't the Plan.

Rep. Jamie Raskin was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday what Democrats would do about President Trump if they take back the House in November, and he gave the answer his party has been circling for a year: yes, and also no.

Trump has undoubtedly committed impeachable offenses in his second term, Raskin told moderator Kristen Welker. Then he spent the rest of the segment explaining why that is not the point. "Impeachment is a critical tool in the toolbox for constitutional self-defense against a president acting like a king, an imperious, lawless, arrogant king," the Maryland Democrat said. Pressed on whether his caucus would use it, he said impeachment "is not a taboo with us" — and, in the same breath, "It's not a fetish with us. It's not a panacea."

Raskin is not a random member on this subject. He was the lead House impeachment manager in Trump's second Senate trial in 2021 and is the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, which is where any third impeachment would begin. When he describes the offenses he has in mind, he lists military action taken without congressional authorization, spending decisions that defy Congress's appropriations power, and financial conduct inside the administration he calls massively corrupt.

What he would not do is name the article. Republicans seized on that within hours, circulating clips of the exchange under the framing that a former impeachment manager could not produce a single specific charge on live television.

The reluctance is strategic and it is not his alone. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Jim Clyburn have both signaled in recent months that impeachment would not be the opening move of a Democratic majority, and that affordability — grocery prices, gas prices, premiums, rent — is where the party intends to spend its floor time. Raskin put health care and what he called ending the lawlessness ahead of impeachment in the queue.

There is also arithmetic behind the caution. Impeachment is a House vote; removal requires 67 senators. Trump was impeached twice in his first term and acquitted twice, and no plausible 2026 Senate map produces a two-thirds majority to convict him. An impeachment that everyone knows will fail in the Senate is a month of floor time and a month of coverage traded for a symbolic vote, in an election cycle where Democratic strategists have been arguing that the winning message is a cheaper insurance premium rather than a constitutional argument.

Trump's approval rating sat at 36% in recent polling, with a notable drop in the share of Republicans who strongly approve. Raskin's answer suggests his party would rather run on that number than test it.