Dems' left flank sours on Trump impeachment "theater"

• Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) famously said of Trump in 2019, "We're gonna impeach the motherfucker," a line Republicans have routinely dredged up to dismiss impeachment efforts against the president as premeditated.
• On Thursday, she told Axios in a statement: "No matter what happens in November, we'll still have a Trump administration for the next two years to hold accountable."

Driving the news: Likely incoming Democratic House members Darializa Avila Chevalier of New York and Melat Kiros of Colorado struck a similar tone in a recent podcast interview when asked about impeaching Trump.

• "I support accountability, but ... that is something that Trump himself seems to want," Avila Chevalier said.
• "My question is: Is that actually going to be meaningful accountability for the Trump administration?"

• Said Kiros: "The accountability has to actually lead to some material changes."

What we're hearing: Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), who has advocated a day-one impeachment, told Axios in an interview, "Impeachment can't just be a political messaging strategy."

• "I think what Melat and Darializa are getting to is that people want to see justice and real accountability. ... We can't just tell people things that some would feel like is fluff," Ramirez said.
• "I think the American people are tired of theater," said Adam Hamawy, another likely Democratic House member from New Jersey. He told Axios any impeachment proceedings need to be "a real process with substance, rather than just getting up there and just making a show of it."

Rep. Analilia Mejia (D-N.J.) said Democrats "should investigate the heads of these departments and bad actors across the board," but she is "less inclined to the performative and more inclined to identify what's impactful."

• "The performative may feel nice, but in the end will not bear the kind of fruit that the American people deserve," she added.
• Tlaib said the House Oversight Committee "must continue pressing for real accountability and consequences for this corrupt administration's crimes and abuses of taxpayers' dollars against our neighbors, public health, environment, safety and democracy."

The big picture: Democrats have had a tortured relationship with impeachment since Trump returned to office in 2025.

• After impeaching the president twice in his first term only to see him acquitted both times by the Senate and then reelected in 2024, even the most ardently anti-Trump Democrats came into last year recoiling at the mere mention of another impeachment.
• But they were buffeted by a grassroots base furious about the second Trump administration's precedent-shattering moves and demanding Democrats use every tool at their disposal to fight back.

By the numbers: When Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) tried to force a vote on impeaching Trump in June 2025, 128 of his fellow House Democrats voted with Republicans to block it.

• By December, only 23 Democrats voted to block it.
• When Green did it a third time last month, 18 Democrats voted to block it, while 147 voted with him to force the vote and 46, including party leaders, voted "present."

Yes, but: Green and Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), who similarly championed impeaching Trump in his second term, have both lost their reelection bids this year.

• Their losses came as the party base has turned away from anti-Trump #resistance crusaders in favor of more broadly anti-establishment, left-wing ideologues, as Axios previously reported.
• These incoming progressives are expressing a view more in line with Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.): That impeachment shouldn't be a fait accompli.

What's next: While Trump may be off the board for now, his Cabinet certainly isn't.

• The House could soon vote on an impeachment resolution against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, triggered by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) just before lawmakers left for October recess.
• "I do think that holding Pete Hegseth [accountable] and looking into the ways in which our governing bodies have failed to meet the standards, the laws ... is all part of holding this government accountable," said Mejia.