Senate Democrats are being forced into an uncomfortable conversation about President Donald Trump as the House prepares to vote on one House lawmaker’s articles of impeachment.
Rep. Sri Thanedar (D-MI) announced Tuesday that he would file his impeachment resolution as privileged, starting a two-day clock for House Republicans to bring it to the floor.
The attention had been on Trump’s decision to accept a luxury jet from Qatar, with Senate Democrats accusing the White House of “unabashed” corruption and offering their own legislation to protest the gift.
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Now, they are being asked whether that alleged corruption is an impeachable offense, a question that threatens to divide the party and invite Republican attacks.
On Tuesday, Democrats accused the president of accepting a bribe and flouting the Constitution with the plane, which Trump wants to replace Air Force One. But the senators sidestepped whether that meant the president should face an unprecedented third Senate trial.
“Look, I already voted to convict this president,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), referring to his 2021 impeachment vote. Instead, he shifted attention to congressional Republicans, who are expected to table the impeachment resolution.
“I think the question is, what are they doing? What are they saying?” Warnock said. “They have a trifecta, and with that comes responsibility to think about the people, to think about the future of the country.”
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) compared the luxury jet to the $148 million investors spent on Trump’s meme coin to win a dinner with the president.
“It’s self-dealing of the highest sort, maybe only outmatched by his corrupt use of cryptocurrency, and which we need to put an end to,” Merkley said.
Yet he, like Warnock, called the question a matter for the lower chamber: “Impeachment is a House issue, I’ll leave it to lawyers in the House.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said others can “weigh” if impeachment is warranted.
“I’m focused on enforcement of the emoluments clause,” he said, referring to a constitutional ban on presidents accepting foreign gifts without the approval of Congress.
On Tuesday evening, Blumenthal tried to bring a resolution authorizing legal action against Trump to the floor, but it was blocked by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).
The DOJ claims the gift does not amount to bribery because no official act was offered in exchange for the plane, according to ABC News. But Republicans, including Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), have acknowledged “issues” with the transfer, should it go through.
Under the proposed arrangement, the jet, which could require millions in taxpayer upgrades, would be transferred to Trump’s presidential library once he leaves office.
Trump has also invited scrutiny with his family’s expanding business footprint in the Middle East, where the president is making the first major trip of his second term this week.
So far, Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) is the only Senate Democrat to say Trump’s conduct has “exceeded any prior standard for impeachment,” a surprise comment he made at a town hall in April. Ossoff is one of the most vulnerable Democrats up for reelection next year.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), one of the Senate’s most progressive Democrats, came close to joining Ossoff, telling the Washington Examiner that “the level of corruption seems to be super-sized compared to what he did in his first term.”
“And no doubt that what he did during his first term was impeachable,” Murphy said on Tuesday.
But Murphy and other Democrats have chosen to focus on the limited tools available to them in the minority instead of revisiting the headlines drawn by Ossoff.
The Senate GOP campaign arm immediately attacked Ossoff for the comment, while Thanedar’s articles, introduced without the blessing of leadership, also threaten to put vulnerable House Democrats in a tough position politically.
Murphy plans to force votes on any arms sales announced on Trump’s foreign trip, while Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) is drafting a resolution disapproving of the luxury plane’s transfer.
On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced he would slow down all of Trump’s Justice Department nominees over the proposed gift.
“I mean, listen, I just exist in the realm of the possible right now,” said Murphy. “Our only chance to stop this corruption is to convince our Republican colleagues to join us in these resolutions or these pieces of legislation.”
In a statement, the White House defended Trump’s second-term conduct. On top of corruption allegations, Democrats have accused the president of ignoring due process with his deportations and flouting the will of Congress with his agency-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.
Thanedar’s articles of impeachment focus on a wide range of actions, including the planned shuttering of federal agencies and Trump’s emergency tariffs.
“Every action taken by President Trump and his administration is fully lawful and firmly rooted in the will of the American people,” said White House spokeswoman Liz Huston.
“President Trump is doing exactly what he promised: securing our border, bringing in trillions of dollars in investment to America, and restoring common sense leadership,” she added. “Meanwhile, Democrats are once again showing where their true priorities lie – siding with illegal immigrants over the safety, security, and well-being of hardworking American citizens.”
Not all Democrats say Trump’s dealings with Qatar are corrupt. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), a centrist voice who has ridden on Air Force One, questioned the wisdom of using a foreign plane but suggested Democrats had “abused” impeachment and should “stop throwing around the ‘I-word.’”
Trump was impeached twice in his first term but acquitted in both cases due to the two-thirds threshold needed to convict in the Senate. Those impeachments did not center on Trump’s family businesses. Still, Democrats, including Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), the lead manager in his second impeachment, have in the past scrutinized the millions spent by foreign countries at Trump’s properties.
Raskin is a House co-sponsor of the emoluments bill advocated by Blumenthal.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), another Democratic centrist, raised ethics and national security concerns over the gift from Qatar, a country with ties to Iran and the terrorist group Hamas. But she, too, avoided any impeachment talk.
“I think it’s an asinine decision,” she said, adding, “I didn’t go straight to impeachment at all” when asked if Trump had committed a high crime or misdemeanor.
On the GOP side, Trump has Senate defenders, including Tuberville, who, in a floor speech, accused Democrats of trying to distract from the economic deals Trump is announcing on his trip to the Middle East.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), one of the Republicans to vote for conviction in Trump’s second impeachment trial, said it’s appropriate to ask whether the Qatari jet, estimated at a value of $400 million, would violate the emoluments clause if transferred to the U.S.
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“I think that’s exactly the question that needs to be asked, to determine if it is in violation,” she told the Washington Examiner.
“When you get something of that value from a country, one typically thinks that there’s something in it for the country that is offering it.”