Al Green Forced an Impeachment Vote and His Own Party Buried Him 232 to 147

Democrats have impeached Donald Trump twice already, and both times they lost.

Last week, one of their own tried to force a floor vote anyway.

What his own colleagues did to him on the floor will make Democrats furious all over again.

Eighteen Democrats Crossed the Aisle to Kill Al Green's Trump Impeachment Vote

Rep. Al Green forced his eighth privileged resolution to impeach President Trump onto the House floor on September 15.

He accused the administration of abusing its power through an aggressive deportation crackdown.

The House tabled it 232 to 147.

Eighteen Democrats crossed the aisle to help Republicans kill their own party's impeachment push.

Forty-seven more Democrats hid behind a vote of present, refusing to say yes and refusing to say no.

That group included every member of Democratic leadership – Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark and Pete Aguilar.

Green wasn't shy about why he did it.

He's a Houston Democrat who lost his primary after Texas redrew his district, and this was his last shot before he's gone in January.

Jeffries had his own explanation for why leadership sat on its hands – he said "none of the serious work" had been done to warrant Green's impeachment push, a public jab at a member of his own caucus.

Green wasn't having it.

He challenged the colleagues criticizing him behind closed doors to say it to his face and debate the matter publicly on the floor.

His own party wasn't interested in the debate.

One House Democrat told Axios the whole stunt was "f—ed up."

Others admitted privately it had nothing to do with policy and everything to do with distracting from the party's closing pitch to voters before the midterms.

Green got the message.

He's leaving Congress with eight failed impeachment attempts and a party that wouldn't even pretend to back him.

Jeffries Won't Rule Out Impeachment as Cohen's 26 Articles Pile Pressure on Democrats

Nine days after Green's humiliation, Rep. Steve Cohen dropped 26 articles of impeachment against Trump.

Cohen knows it's dead on arrival in a Republican House.

He's building it as a blueprint for next year, betting Democrats take the majority in November.

That's the trap Jeffries can't escape.

Asked point-blank in April whether Democrats would move to impeach, Jeffries dodged.

He gave NBC's Kristen Welker the same non-answer in June.

CNN got it again in August.

ABC got it again in September.

Meanwhile his own members aren't waiting for permission.

Rep. Madeleine Dean said Trump's own words on Iran amounted to high crimes and misdemeanors.

Rep. Sara Jacobs accused the President of threatening genocide.

Sen. Andy Kim said the President is unfit to serve as commander in chief and openly called for his removal.

Jeffries knows exactly where this goes if he lets it.

Democrats Are Repeating the Impeachment Mistake That Cost Republicans Their Speaker in 1998

Republicans already ran this play once, and it cost them the Speaker's gavel.

In 1998, Newt Gingrich made impeaching Bill Clinton the centerpiece of the midterm campaign.

Republicans lost five House seats that November, the first time in 64 years that a sitting president's party had actually gained ground in a midterm.

Gingrich was gone from Congress within two months.

Jeffries is trying not to repeat that mistake, keeping impeachment talk "off the table" the same way Pelosi did until 2019, when her own caucus finally forced her hand.

But eighteen Democrats defying leadership and forty-seven more too scared to vote no isn't message discipline – it's a party coming apart at the seams in public.

Jeffries knows what happened to Gingrich the moment impeachment became the whole campaign, and he's betting he can keep talking about grocery prices long enough to hold his caucus together until November.

Al Green just proved that bet is already cracking.

Sources:

• Chad Pergram, "Reporter's Notebook: Democrats face an impeachment tractor beam that could derail their affordability message," Fox News, September 25, 2026.
• "House Kills Al Green Resolution to Impeach Trump, 147 Democrats Vote to Keep It Alive," Breitbart, September 15, 2026.
• "Preview of a Midterm Reckoning: House Democrat Drops Massive 26-Article Impeachment Resolution Against Trump," Breitbart, September 26, 2026.
• "House quashes another Trump impeachment push with Dem help," Axios, September 15, 2026.
• "Al Green's Trump impeachment stunt fails – his own party just admitted it was theater," Washington Examiner, September 23, 2026.