Kamala Harris sat in the Senate for Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial, and the arithmetic she watched up close is now her argument against trying it again.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris told Aaron Parnas of MeidasTouch, in an interview published Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026, that Democrats should not impeach President Trump a third time if they win back the House in the midterm elections on Nov. 3. Parnas had asked what she would recommend to congressional leadership: investigations and possibly an impeachment one day, or passing policy and forcing the president to veto it.
“I think that going in the direction of impeachment is not a good idea, just to be honest with you, just because we have limited resources,” Harris said.
The party’s energy and money, she argued, would be better spent on accountability and investigations.
Impeachment itself takes only a simple majority in the House. Conviction and removal take 67 senators, a two-thirds supermajority neither party has held since the mid-1960s, when Democrats briefly controlled 68 of 100 seats.
What the Last Go-Round Taught Her
“Remember, I was in the Senate for the last go-round, and the votes aren’t there,” Harris said.
She was one of the senators who voted to convict Trump over the alleged quid pro quo involving Ukraine aid. By the time of his second Senate trial, in February 2021, she was vice president.
The Democratic-controlled House impeached Trump in December 2019 over his dealings with Ukraine, then again in January 2021 after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The Senate acquitted him both times. Harris lost the 2024 presidential election to Trump and has been mentioned as a possible 2028 contender.
Hillary Clinton Calls It a Sideshow
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reached the same conclusion in an interview with journalist Kara Swisher. “I am against impeaching Donald Trump because I think it’s a sideshow and he can’t get convicted,” Clinton said. She did favor opening impeachment investigations into appointed officials, singling out War Secretary Pete Hegseth, whom she accused of hollowing out and politicizing the military.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has kept his options open, saying Democrats have not “ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out” on impeaching Trump. He has signaled that administration officials such as Hegseth are the likelier targets.
The Vote That Split House Democrats
The divide is already on the record. In September, the House voted 232-147 to table an impeachment resolution brought by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, over Trump’s immigration enforcement policies. Eighteen Democrats joined Republicans to kill it. Another 46 Democrats, Jeffries among them, voted present.
Trump, for his part, told Newsmax host Rob Finnerty earlier in October that he had information about Hillary Clinton and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden that could be used against them criminally.
Democratic leaders have spent the closing stretch before Election Day on the economy and the cost of living. Harris pointed to Medicaid cuts and the need to restore checks and balances amid concerns about a war.
She wants the party ruthless after the election, she said, but not cruel — uncompromising, finished with being polite about relationships, and focused on actually getting things done.
