Rep. Ro Khanna of California is not backing off from his drive to impeach President Trump for a third time, putting him at odds with fellow Democrats who say it is a waste of time as long as they are in the minority.
Mr. Khanna, a likely 2028 presidential contender, told “Fox News Sunday” that his push for impeachment is rooted in moral conviction.
“I believe we have certain moral principles, and the American President shouldn’t threaten to wipe Iranian civilization from the face of the earth,” Mr. Khanna said. “That America does not threaten to bomb people into the Stone Age. Even kings don’t do that. Even dictators don’t do that.
“I believe in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal under God, and that everyone has dignity. And I don’t want an American president making those kind of threats because they undermine our nation’s core principles. They undermine our faith. They undermine who we are as Americans,” he said.
Mr. Khanna was alluding to escalating threats Mr. Trump made in the days before the U.S. and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire.
As his self-imposed Tuesday-night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz drew near, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
The warning capped weeks of increasingly stark rhetoric in which Mr. Trump threatened to bomb Iran into “the Stone Ages” and reduce its bridges and power plants to rubble — strikes that legal experts warned would constitute war crimes.
Dozens of Democrats responded by saying Mr. Trump must be removed from office under the 25th Amendment or through impeachment.
But Democratic leaders have refused to jump on the impeachment bandwagon, signaling they are more interested in keeping the focus on Mr. Trump’s economic record and failure to bring down costs. That has not dulled the enthusiasm of the party’s left wing and most rabid anti-Trump voices.
Democrats don’t have the votes to impeach Mr. Trump right now, but many in the party are looking to next year and using the impeachment push to energize grassroots activists ahead of this fall’s midterm elections.
Mr. Trump was impeached twice during his first term over allegations that he withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate former President Joseph R. Biden and for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He was not convicted in the Senate, where a two-thirds vote is needed.
Rep. Madeleine Dean, a Pennsylvania Democrat who served as a House impeachment manager during his second impeachment trial, recently threw cold water on the idea of forcing Mr. Trump from office.
“As you all know, we are in the minority, so bringing forward impeachment right now, while he is guilty of a litany of high crimes and misdemeanors, I don’t think it is the best use of our time. Let us get into the majority,” Ms. Dean said. “Let us get a Senate majority and then hold this president to account.”
