If Democrats win control of Congress next year, they’ll be faced with a familiar question: Should they impeach President Donald Trump?
But one of the president’s most outspoken critics from within his own party has some advice for Democrats: Don’t underestimate the power of impeaching cabinet secretaries.
Just last week, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky demonstrated the potential power of impeachment when he introduced a resolution targeting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
After Massie’s surprise move, House GOP leaders — who already were sending the House home two weeks early for campaign season — decided to throw in the towel and leave even sooner rather than allow the vote.
Massie and some Democrats have argued it’s because, if a vote were called, it could have attracted the support of almost every Democrat and enough Republicans to succeed in the House — a messaging embarrassment for Trump and the GOP.
Massie suggested there’s a lesson in the whole mess, telling MS NOW that “impeaching cabinet members is highly underrated.”
“I would think a lot of these cabinet secretaries are going to get pardons at the end of their tenure — or the end of the president’s tenure, at least,” he said.
The whole episode comes as Democrats are ramping up plans for aggressive oversight investigations of the Trump administration, should they win control of Congress in the November elections.
Already, however, some Democrats believe their party should go further than just investigating the president; they want impeachment.
That’s an avenue the party pursued twice against Trump before, without achieving a successful conviction in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required.
In the aftermath of those impeachments, Trump used the failed convictions to rally his base, casting himself as a martyr and playing into their fealty.
That history is forcing Democrats to weigh not just whether to impeach, but whom to impeach.
The GOP skittishness over defending Hegseth is suggesting an alternative approach, particularly if Democrats focus on cabinet members who have less political loyalty from Republicans than Trump himself.
Some Democrats are open to the idea, as they figure out how to signal to their base that they’re resisting Trump while not inspiring a voter backlash.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. — who is expected to lead the House Judiciary Committee, where any articles of impeachment would likely originate — noted that even the threat of impeachment could lead to a White House shakeup.
“There were impeachment resolutions that either had just been filed or were about to be filed with respect to Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi,” Raskin said. “They were such a disaster, the administration just ended up having to get rid of them on their own.”
Rep. James Walkinshaw — a member of the House Oversight Committee — echoed that sentiment.
The Virginia Democrat told MS NOW that, while it is “hard to envision” getting “enough Republicans to cross Trump” in the Senate, he “absolutely” could see an investigation that “creates enough of a distraction from the White House’s perspective that they cut somebody loose.”
“Trump has been impeached twice. Pete Hegseth has not,” Walkinshaw said.
Last week, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries didn’t dismiss the idea of impeaching a cabinet member — or Trump, for that matter.
“We haven’t ruled anything out when it comes to all of the tools available to us to hold people accountable,” the New York Democrat told MS NOW. “And we haven’t ruled anything in.”
In U.S. history, the impeachment of a cabinet secretary is exceedingly rare. Only two have ever been impeached by the House: Secretary of War William Belknap in 1876 and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in 2024.
Neither was convicted in the Senate.
Predictably, of the more than a dozen Democrats who spoke with MS NOW, most didn’t jump at the idea of impeaching anyone.
Some questioned whether impeachment — either of the president or of a cabinet official — would be a good use of their time, noting the two-thirds threshold for conviction in the Senate. Plus, Democrats note that voters are turning to their party to address the cost of living — not just to go after Trump.
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Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., told MS NOW that, when it comes to impeachment as a tool, “I think it is not worth the effort if we don’t think there’s a reasonable chance of success.”
“We’ve seen this now a few times. Taking that shot and not succeeding has a cost, too,” Ryan said.
He added that there are other ways Democrats can “prosecute the case against Hegseth and Trump that make it clear to the American public.”
Other Democrats also showed some hesitancy to go full steam ahead on impeachment, either endorsing alternative approaches or just saying their focus needs to be elsewhere.
Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, told MS NOW that “impeachment is one route to accountability, but there are many other ways to go.” She pointed to “investigatory hearings.”
Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said, “We should be focused on affordability, not impeachment.”
And Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told MS NOW that, while he believes congressional committees should be “super vigorous” in uncovering corruption in the Trump White House, he believes that the top focus should be passing legislation focused on affordability.
“Anything that is other than doing that is not the best use of time,” Kaine said.
“The rest of us ought to be legislating and accomplishing the things we’ve been telling voters we want to accomplish,” he added.
Part of the Democratic holdup around impeachment is rooted in what happened in the aftermath of the two impeachments of the first Trump term, when the president tried to use the failed Senate convictions to rally and re-energize his supporters.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said that “Donald Trump is a genius at playing the victim.”
“If we should learn anything, it’s that if we are able to take back the House and the Senate, we got to get stuff done,” Warner said.
Massie himself hinted at the balancing act Democrats may need to navigate.
“After we lose the midterms,” Massie said of the GOP, “Trump’s popularity will be at a low. My advice to Democrats: Don’t get too crazy.”
But, Massie added, “it’s likely that the Democrats will go crazy and increase his popularity again.”
For his part, Raskin — who could be the face of any impeachment — admitted plainly that Democrats have not “decided” on what the path forward will look like.
He said Democrats know that impeachment “is not a panacea, so it’s not a fetish for us.”
“But,” he added, “it’s also not a taboo in any way. We’re not afraid of it.”
Kevin Frey is a congressional reporter for MS NOW.
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