Former Vice President Kamala Harris broke with some on the left flank of the Democratic Party on Wednesday over whether Democrats should pursue impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump if they regain control of Congress in November.
“The Parnas Perspective” host Aaron Parnas asked Harris what she would recommend Congress do if Democrats regain control following the midterm elections.
“Would it be to go the investigations route and potentially an impeachment one day,” he asked, “or would it be go past policy and force the president to veto it?”
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“I think that going on in the direction of impeachment is not a good idea. OK, just to be honest with you. Because we have limited resources and I think the energy and the resources need to be put into accountability, need to be put into investigations and that’s where the time should be spent. Remember I was in the Senate for the last go-round and the votes aren’t there, right? So that’s how I feel,” Harris said.
She argued Democrats need to focus on getting things done and that they should be “ruthless.”
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“When I say we should be ruthless, I don’t mean cruel, but we should be uncompromising and not sit around, you know, being genteel about the relationships and instead actually get stuff done, whether it be about accountability or restoring, for example, what they took in terms of the Medicaid cuts, restoring what we need to do around some check and balance around this war nobody wants,” the former VP said.
Some Democrats in Congress have pushed again to impeach Trump, who was impeached twice during his first term in office but acquitted in the Senate on both occasions. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, forced a vote on a resolution to impeach Trump over his administration’s immigration enforcement policies, including the deaths of people during federal immigration operations earlier this year. The move divided House Democrats, whose leaders have largely avoided emphasizing impeachment as they work to regain control of Congress in the November midterms.
Florida Democratic Senate candidate and state Rep. Angie Nixon said in an interview with Politico that she would not oppose impeachment hearings and would vote to remove Trump if elected.
“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart expressed a similar sentiment during a question-and-answer segment at the end of his “The Weekly Show” podcast. He was asked whether Democrats should seek to impeach Trump if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections.
He said he wanted Democrats to make a full-scale effort to rebalance the economy rather than hold performative hearings.
“I don’t want to see a f—ing five-act performative play of House hearings,” Stewart said. “I just don’t want to see it. I don’t want to see everybody having the opportunity to pantomime accountability because you know they’re actually not going to bring it.”
“There will be enormous pressure to seek accountability if Democrats win control in either or both chambers next week, but the push to make things better for the American people may be even more intense. If successful, Democrats would be wise to try to strike some balance and to work on parallel tracks to deliver results. Voters want justice and accountability, but they want affordable gas and groceries more,” Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Fox News Digital of Harris’ remarks.
Republican strategist Liz Mair, head of Mair strategies, said Harris was “right,” in a statement to Fox News Digital. She added, “Democrats will win these midterms not because swing voters who deliver those victories want them to spend the next two years impeaching the president, but because they want them to focus on bringing costs down or at least limiting ongoing price hikes.”
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“Every second Democrats spend trying to impeach President Trump again is a minute they’re not spending addressing affordability challenges, and appeasing their base at the expense of doing what they will literally have been elected to accomplish,” Mair said.
Harris has endorsed several big institutional changes, such as Supreme Court expansion, possibly getting rid of the Electoral College, and Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico statehood.