Inside the House Dem push to impeach Trump on Day 1

• "This is something that I keep saying to our leadership ... we need to have a very concrete, coordinated strategy," Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) told Axios.
• The Illinois Democrat said the party should "build up the case so that when we are in power in January, we've created the conditions ... we've done the fact-checking, we've done the shadow hearings, everything we need to be able to to impeach [Trump]."
• Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) told Axios that if Democrats recapture the House "the push for impeachment is going to be overwhelming."

Driving the news: A Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll released Tuesday found that 55% of U.S. adults surveyed said the House should vote to impeach Trump, while just 37% oppose it.

• "That net +18 verdict," Strength In Numbers author G. Elliott Morris wrote, "puts Trump in the neighborhood of the numbers Richard Nixon saw at the peak of the Watergate scandal in August 1974."
• Morris cited Axios' reporting that more than 85 House and Senate Democrats called for Trump to be impeached or removed via the 25th Amendment to the Constitution following his threat to destroy Iran's civilization earlier this month.

The big picture: In the immediate aftermath of the 2024 election, Democrats didn't even want to hear the word impeachment.

• "People ridiculed me," said Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), who was the first Democrat to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump last year.
• When Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) forced a vote on impeaching Trump last June, 128 Democrats voted with Republicans to quash the effort while just 78 voted to advance it.

Things have changed drastically. When Green forced another vote to impeach Trump last December, his support went from 78 Democrats to 140.

• Another 47 Democrats voted "present," including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and his top deputies, while just 23 sided with Republicans.
• When Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) introduced articles of impeachment against then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January following the shooting of Renée Good, 187 House Democrats co-sponsored them.

The intrigue: Ramirez pointed to the fact that Republicans began talking about impeaching former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas months before they recaptured the House in 2022.

• That's "the same thing we have to be doing," she said. "Not that I'm saying I want to copy Republicans, but ... starting this work in January is too late."

• Said Thanedar: "We have a case — a very strong case — so we should really work on it now."

Yes, but: Just because a member supports impeachment when asked — or when forced to go on the record in a House vote — doesn't mean they think it should be a policy priority for their party.

• Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) said Trump has "done something in this Congress that justifies the conversation, but we've already seen twice unless you're going to get a two-thirds majority in the Senate ... the president will not be removed from office."
• Schneider, the chair of the center-left New Democrat coalition, said he is "going to work on strengthening American security, making lives better for the American people and moving the country forward."
• A House Democrat who has strongly advocated for impeachment in public said on the condition of anonymity that "there are things that we can win, and impeachment is not one of them — now or, unfortunately, at any point during this presidency."

The bottom line: For some lawmakers and activists, that answer will simply never be good enough.

• Ramirez said that in addition to going after Trump, Democrats should continue to pursue the impeachment and conviction of both Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi "because these people should never be in public office again."
• "We're going to have to do that work now," she said.