After significant pushback from within his own caucus, Rep. Shri Thanedar on Wednesday dropped his bid to force a vote on an impeachment resolution against President Donald Trump.
“I have decided not to force a vote on impeachment today,” Thanedar announced on X. “Instead, I will add to my articles of impeachment and continue to rally the support of both Democrats and Republicans to defend the Constitution with me.”
Thanedar did not trigger a vote for his resolution, a procedural move that have needed to happen for the House to vote on the measure, sources told NOTUS.
Earlier Wednesday, House Democratic leadership told Democrats they planned to thwart Thanedar’s efforts when it came for a vote later in the day. House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark said in the weekly Democratic caucus meeting that leadership would vote to table Thanedar’s impeachment resolution, two people familiar with her comments said.
She told Democratic lawmakers to keep focus on Republican cuts in the budget reconciliation bill that is currently being marked up in two House committees, which earned applause from Democrats in the room, the two people said.
Rep. Jerry Nadler called the impeachment effort “idiotic” and “horrible” during the caucus meeting, a person in the room told NOTUS. The person said the comments were backed by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, though she did not repeat his phrasing. She has also said in the past Democrats should measure strategy around impeachment, a person familiar with her comments told NOTUS. Axios first reported on Nadler’s comments.
Thanedar introduced the 29-page impeachment resolution two weeks ago, as one of his primary challengers picked up momentum. The resolution alleges Trump obstructed justice and abused his power, among other accusations.
Thanedar’s switch to not move the articles forward is a stark contrast to what he said earlier Wednesday when he said he wasn’t planning on backing down.
“There is no wrong time to do the right thing,” he said in a statement to NOTUS before the news that the vote wouldn’t happen. “Honoring one of my heroes, John Lewis, I will get into ‘good trouble’ and stand up to this President who has abused power of his office and committed blatantly unconstitutional acts. Donald J. Trump must be impeached.”
Thanedar’s fellow Democrats were mostly dismissive of the effort from the start. And there was some drama initially about cosponsors being added to the measure without sign-off from the principals.
“You’ll have to talk to Shri about his perspective as to what he believes to be the right thing to do at this moment,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said after Thanedar introduced the measure.
Thanedar’s decision to introduce the impeachment articles led to infighting among Democrats. Two people familiar with talks within the Democratic Party told NOTUS that impeaching Trump is a dead-on-arrival effort, given how impossible it is to advance such an effort under a Republican majority, and politically fraught.
Thanedar is a controversial figure in Democratic circles. His colleagues have supported primary challengers against him multiple times, including fellow Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s recent endorsement of state Rep. Donavan McKinney for Thanedar’s seat. In her endorsement, Tlaib accused Thanedar of falling short in representing his constituents.
In a press conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, Thanedar criticized his fellow Democrats for not joining his impeachment push.
“I have not heard a single member of Congress from the Democratic side tell me that this president has not done impeachable conduct,” he said. “Some Democrats have called me a lunatic. But nobody has said to me, ‘Mr. Thanedar, the seven articles of impeachment that you presented to the U.S. Congress, they’re a piece of shit. They’re not good. You missed the point.’ No one has said that.”
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Tinashe Chingarande is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Daniella Diaz is a reporter at NOTUS.
This story has been updated to reflect that the vote will not take place Wednesday.