House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told reporters Wednesday morning after Democrats swept the midterms and won majorities in the House and Senate that no House Democrat has raised the subject of impeaching President Donald Trump with him.
"I haven't had a single member of the House Democratic Caucus talk to me about impeachment," Jeffries claimed. "We've been relentlessly focused on affordability and on accountability because the House is a separate and co-equal branch of government."
Jeffries, who is expected to be elected House Speaker in the next session of Congress, said impeaching Trump does not rank among his priorities, even though he used "accountability" in the same statement along with "affordability."
Despite the contradiction, he made the same case during an appearance on MSNOW's Morning Joe, where he outlined his agenda for the incoming House.
"The American people don't want us to get even," Jeffries claimed on Morning Joe. "They want us to get things done on their behalf because life is way too expensive. We ran on affordability. We won on affordability. And now it's our job to govern on affordability."
Jeffries insisted Democrats had campaigned on lowering prices for groceries, gas, housing, and health care.
"As a matter of fact, we made clear that we're fighting for an affordable America and explicitly promised the American people that we would fight hard to lower the high costs of groceries and gas and housing, and that we were gonna fight hard to make sure that healthcare was affordable for every single American, and that hardworking American taxpayers who are working hard and playing by the rules, they should be able to live an affordable life," he said. "That's our mission, that's our responsibility, and we're gonna work hard to make that happen."
However, there's reason to be skeptical of his claims. When asked about impeachment before the election, Jeffries said Democrats "haven't ruled anything in, and we haven't ruled anything out." Other Democrats have spent months pledging a wave of investigations once the party regained power, and several have said Trump already meets the threshold for removal. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has repeatedly claimed Trump has committed numerous impeachable offenses during his second term.
Raskin led the second impeachment of Trump in 2021, after the January 6 Capitol riot. The Senate acquitted Trump in that trial, as it did in the first impeachment in 2020.
Further undermining Jeffries' claim that Democrats aren't interested in impeachment or revenge, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released a statement after the party secured its majority, vowing to "take on the Trump Crime Family, corporate corruption, DHS and ICE abuses, and the cover-up of the Epstein files."
Pressure for investigations is also coming from the party's progressive wing. Fox News reported Wednesday evening that many progressives want Democrats, who will hold majorities in both the House and the Senate, to open investigations into Trump, his family and administration officials.
Progressive commentator Brian Tyler Cohen described what he hears from his audience in a statement to Fox News Digital.
"As content creators, we hear from huge, diverse audiences, and they all want the same thing: a government that works for them: lower costs, leaders who listen, and accountability when people abuse their power," Cohen said. "Delivering results and pursuing accountability go hand in hand, provided investigations follow the evidence and serve the public."
"Creators helped people get involved in this election, and we're going to keep those conversations going, helping audiences stay informed and judge whether their elected leaders are delivering," Cohen added.
People close to the president expect a third impeachment attempt. A Trump confidant told Axios last month that a Democratic investigative push would produce a confrontation between the two sides.
"If Democrats win and start the investigations, he'll get more defiant ... Democrats won't be able to resist impeachment and he won't be able to resist daring them to do it. You think you control Donald Trump? Well, f**k you. You don't," the confidant said.
The White House said Trump remains open to working with the new majority and criticized the prospect of investigations into his administration.
"As the President has said, he's willing to work with anyone to continue delivering victories for hardworking Americans," White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital. "If Democrats choose to pursue sham investigations and radical left policies, they are choosing to work against the American people."
A White House official separately pointed to the administration's federal authority as Democrats prepare to use investigations and subpoenas.
"If crazed Democrats want to abuse their power and politicize their process of investigations, subpoenas, and destroying lives, they should be reminded that we still control the federal government and all of its powers," the official said.