Inside Democrats’ dilemma over how to battle Trump in fight to control Congress

By Sarah Ferris, Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — When a rogue House Democrat surprised his own party with an impeachment vote against President Donald Trump last month, drama quickly rippled through the rank-and-file.

The party’s staunchest Trump antagonists wanted to push forward with a showy rebuke of the commander-in-chief over recent violent threats to Democratic lawmakers, but many more feared the move distracted from the party’s own agenda. Fellow Democrats waited for direction from their leadership. Then moments before the vote, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and his deputies issued a statement declaring they wouldn’t support or oppose the bill – instead they were voting “present.”

Leadership’s statement scrambled many members’ plans. Several directly confronted Jeffries and his team on the floor, while others frantically phoned their staff about what they should do, according to a half dozen members and senior staffers who were on the floor or on the phone that day.

The episode crystallized a much broader dilemma that Democrats face as they seek to flip control of the House, and possibly the Senate, for the second half of Trump’s term. Democrats at all levels are grappling with how exactly to battle Trump if they win control of the House this November. If they take one or both chambers in the midterms, they’ll have newfound oversight powers — and the ability to make Trump’s life miserable. But they’ll also face critical decisions about how to keep the government running, and try to get things done, with a man they despise and distrust.

Then there’s Democrats’ fierce struggle for the future of their party. Ten years after he was first elected president and one year into his second term, Democrats still face deep ideological divisions about their party’s broader identity beyond being a foil to the president.

They believe they’re succeeding in some key ways, such as exposing GOP divides, but that unity is fragile. Now, inside the Democratic caucus, lawmakers are privately beginning to talk about crafting a midterm message that can satiate their anti-Trump base — without overshadowing their economic and health care agenda that they hope can be taken up by the eventual face of the now leader-less party.

“I think there’s going to be, over the course of the next year, a great debate about the future of the country, and we’re going to be leading that,” Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio told CNN.

Inside the US Capitol, Jeffries is quietly trying to steer his caucus away from bombastic, theatrical moves against the president or his Cabinet as he seeks to win back the House on a message of affordability. That includes in this month’s emerging impeachment fight over Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in the wake of the deadly ICE shooting in Minnesota.

While Jeffries’ own committee leaders had planned to announce a cautious first step toward a possible impeachment into Noem last week, two rank-and-file Democrats in tough primary fights got ahead of leadership by announcing their own impeachment articles, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

Jeffries told CNN that impeachment “is not an issue that often comes up” when he’s out in the country. Instead, he said, people raise issues like higher costs of living and struggles to pay for housing, groceries and health and child care.

Some of Jeffries’ closest allies believe he has no interest in flipping the chamber with promises to impeach Trump for a third time and is realistic about the hurdles any impeachment faces in the Senate.

“It’s a waste of time,” one member close to Jeffries said of another Trump impeachment if Democrats flip the House. “He has been there, done that.”

That member, like others interviewed for this story, was granted anonymity to freely discuss internal dynamics that they know are unpopular with the party’s vocal base — especially during primary season. The issue remains potent for the base: One vocal group, Citizens’ Impeachment, is organizing a mass protest at the Capitol on January 20, with removing Trump its demand.

Another Democrat close to leadership warned that another impeachment vote would be a “huge mistake” and potentially risk the party’s chances of winning back the White House in 2028. Recalling the last impeachment votes, the member noted: “We saw how that backfired.”

Even some progressive Democrats agree.

“I think he’s a crook and I think he’s a terrible human being. But at the same time, it’s not gonna go anywhere,” Rep. Juan Vargas, who represents San Diego, said when asked about impeaching Trump next year. Noem, he said, is a different story: “She’s one I think has to go, absolutely.

Vargas is among many Democrats who believe their leadership would be much more likely to go after Trump’s most contentious Cabinet member, such as Noem or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — hopeful that more Republicans will be willing to buck Trump in his final years in office.

Jeffries, who called Noem “out of control” and emphasized accountability, said he hasn’t “ruled anything in or anything out” – but that leaders in his caucus continue to discuss paths forward.

Rep. Pete Aguilar, the No. 3 House Democrat, reinforced that impeachment is not the party’s primary focus. The top priority, he said, is affordability.

“The president is going to try to gin up his base and use this [impeachment] as a tool to get his folks out to vote. There’s no basis behind it. It’s not the priority of the Democratic caucus. But what he should be afraid of is the accountability and oversight that will come,” Aguilar said.

Asked about leadership’s decision not to take a clear position on the issue last month, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark said it was an acknowledgement that Democrats’ simply can’t force Trump from office right now.

“The present vote was saying we know there have been impeachable offenses and we are clear-eyed about that,” she said. “We are also clear-eyed that we are in the minority.”

Still, Democratic congressional leaders are confident they have a shot to retake the majority. “I predict Republicans will follow Trump over the cliff in the midterms and Democrats will win the Senate and House in 2026,” Schumer told CNN in a statement.

From their perch in the minority, Democrats have successfully deployed their limited powers to cause major headaches for Trump and his GOP. Democrats won a major symbolic vote on health care this month, with 17 Republicans voting for Jeffries’ bill to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies for millions of Americans. Democrats helped sign into law a measure that forced Trump’s Justice Department to release all of its Jeffrey Epstein files. They’ve come within two votes of a symbolic rebuke of Trump’s war powers authority in Venezuela.

For Democrats, those are significant wins that many of them did not expect a year ago after a worse-than-expected election that brought an emboldened Trump back to power.

At the start of Trump’s second term, multiple lawmakers recalled, many in the Democratic Party began with the attitude that they should take Trump and congressional Republicans seriously and respect the mandate they were given.

That didn’t last long.

“For the first several months, everyone was looking for one neat trick or button to press to stop all the illegality. And what we’ve realized is that you just have to fight tooth and nail and find opportunities,” Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said.

The party, though, remains divided on how to use another key leverage point — their votes for government funding.

Trump’s ICE operations in Minnesota, which led to the fatal shooting of a protester earlier this month, and his subsequent threats to deploy the military to quell unrest in the state, have drawn fury from across the Democratic Party.

Jeffries told CNN he expects his party to “be together” on the issue in the upcoming spending battle — and telegraphed that Democrats could demand some concessions on ICE.

“There is no path forward for a significant number of Democrats to be supportive of spending legislation that does not include significant accountability measures so that ICE is forced to conduct itself, like every other law enforcement agency in the country,” he told said.

But top Democrats have signaled they want to avoid another funding showdown with Trump — especially one over ICE and immigration — ahead of the next funding deadline on January 30.

Asked about Trump’s threats to invoke the Insurrection Act in response to Minnesota protests, the top Democrat on the House spending panel told CNN the party remained supportive of a Pentagon funding bill that would include no new restrictions on Trump.

“That’s a threat that comes every now and again. We’re going to proceed on DOD,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro said.

It’s not yet clear how Democrats will confront funding issues if they do win back power in November — a major dilemma for a party that wants to see their leaders fight Trump, with little appetite for compromise.

And for now, Hill Democrats are without a national leader to deliver marching orders on critical issues like how to balance governing with Trump accountability.

In conversations with 15 Democrats in both chambers across the ideological spectrum, each member had a different answer as to who they see as the person to potentially lead Democrats out of the minority and back into power.

Some think answers lie in the past.

“I think Franklin D. Roosevelt may be the leader of our party,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said, after a long pause.

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