The Democrat-controlled U.S. House held an impeachment vote on President Donald Trump Wednesday. It didn't go well for them.
If you didn't hear or read about it, don't be surprised. Some media sources didn't carry the story, and others severely downplayed it. It wasn't what they hoped to report.
The resolution to impeach the president was rejected by a 332-95 margin, including by 137 Democrats.
The measure was introduced by U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Texas. He's offered similar resolutions before, and he'll probably offer them again. But this is the first time one of his resolutions to impeach Trump has received a vote since the Democratic Party took over control of the House in January.
To be fair, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and her leadership team probably wish Green had been duct-taped to his office chair and kept from coming to the House floor. She understands impeachment not only would be hard to prove given the president's exoneration of the original Russian tampering charges by the Mueller report but would be highly unpopular with the American people.
The impeachment resolution, in this case, though, had nothing to do with Russia or obstruction. No, Green based his resolution on the "high misdemeanor" - the actual wording in the resolution - of Trump telling the self-named "Squad" of four congresswomen they should go back where they came from.
That action, the Texas congressman said, has " brought the high office of the President of the United States in contempt, ridicule, disgrace, and disrepute, has sown seeds of discord among the people of the United States, had demonstrated that he is unfit to be President, has betrayed his trust as President of the United States to the manifest injury of the people of the United States ... ."
Green used a procedural rule to force the impeachment vote by reading his proposed articles of impeachment on Tuesday night. The vote Wednesday tabled the resolution, effectively killing it. His two previous resolutions came when Republicans led the house in 2017 and 2018.
Some pundits believe the fact more than 30 additional Democrats voted for an impeachment resolution than they did when the GOP controlled the House in 2018 should be a warning for Trump. We're not so sure.
The Democrats have 41 more members in this Congress than they did the last, and this was a prime opportunity for some members to prove to the far left base of the party they were down for the struggle. Among those voting for the resolution were all four members of the "Squad" - Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, plus the usual purveyors of intolerance like Maxine Waters, Jerrold Nadler (the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee), Sheila Jackson Lee and Steve Cohen of Tennessee, and once and current 2020 presidential candidates Seth Moulton and Eric Swalwell. Pelosi did not vote.
However, a recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found Americans who believe there is enough evidence to begin impeachment hearings fell from 27% of Americans in June to 21% of registered voters in July.
Worse for Democrats, Trump's recent suggestion to the "Squad" only raised his approval ratings, which already had hit their highest mark for a quarter during the mid-April through mid-July sector.
In truth, Wednesday was not a good day for the party desperate to oust the president. Its leader, Pelosi, was reprimanded by fellow Democrats for breaking House rules and making "personality-based comments" and was temporarily banned from the House floor. The wife of a North Carolina Democratic House candidate running in opposition to tax loopholes was revealed to have taken more than $50,000 in tax credits. And almost all Democrats joined with Republicans to gut a once-believed integral part of Obamacare, the "Cadillac Tax," which taxed so-called generous health care plans but is now seen as a hit on the middle class.
Still, if 95 Democrats were willing to vote to impeach Trump over another inelegant remark, what would they do if they can pull statements out of context from special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony next week? Certainly, some of the 137 party members who voted against Wednesday's resolution would vote for impeachment, but many of them would be playing with fire.
After all, the talk is growing that if House Democrats and the party's presidential candidates continue to push such an unpopular agenda, not only could the president win a second term but the GOP might win back the House. That would turn Democratic rhetoric in this long, hot summer into a cold, cold winter for the party after the 2020 election.