{"id":574593,"date":"2026-04-09T20:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574593\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T20:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:59:10","slug":"democrats-talk-about-removing-trump-from-office-after-iran-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/574593\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats talk about removing Trump from office after Iran threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> threats to wipe out Iran<\/a>, \u201ca whole civilization,\u201d ended the restraint that Democrats have mostly practiced when it comes to questions of removing him from office in his second term.<\/p>\n

By the dozens, Democrats came out to say that Trump should no longer serve in the White House, either through the impeachment process or the 25th Amendment<\/a>, which allows the vice president and the Cabinet to declare that a president is no longer able to perform the job.<\/p>\n

While Trump eventually pulled<\/a> back on his threat and agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran, the episode highlighted the growing demands for Democrats to oppose the Republican president in the strongest possible terms. Calls about Iran flooded into congressional offices, lawmakers said. <\/p>\n

The breadth of the Democratic pushback underscored the gravity of Trump\u2019s apocalyptic threat to a country of more than 91 million people. It also served to raise the domestic political stakes for a conflict that is far from over. The Trump administration faces mounting calls to testify about the war and justify its demands<\/a> for hundreds of billions of dollars in new military spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot excuse what the president said as a negotiating tactic,\u201d Rep. Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat told reporters at the Capitol Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that even though we were able to get this ceasefire, which I pray holds, that we hold this president accountable for what he threatened because threatening genocide is not just against international law, it\u2019s against our federal law, too,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Still, Democratic leaders and many moderates in the party have steered clear of endorsing impeachment, and any attempt to remove Trump from office is doomed to fail so long as Republicans control Congress. <\/p>\n

In the near term, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are instead pushing Republicans to join them and pass legislation that would force Trump to get congressional approval before carrying out any more attacks on Iran. <\/p>\n

A few Democrats attempted during a brief session of the House on Thursday to pass what\u2019s known as a war powers resolution on Iran, but Republicans, who control the chamber, did not acknowledge their request.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need Speaker Johnson to call us into session,\u201d said Democratic Rep Emily Randall of Washington. \u201cThe American people deserve that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt has defended Trump\u2019s rhetoric as effective.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think it was a very, very strong threat from the president of the United States that led the Iranian regime to cave to their knees and ask for a ceasefire and agree to reopening the Strait of Hormuz,\u201d she said at a Wednesday White House press briefing.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"President<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters during a news conference in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

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Callers jam congressional phone lines<\/p>\n

As they press their case against Trump, Democrats are responding to the worries of their own base and constituents. Congressional offices were bombarded with phone calls and emails this week, largely from people alarmed by the president\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n

In the House, the office of Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., received a \u201cton\u201d of calls and emails Monday and Tuesday, mostly about Iran but also about impeaching Trump or removing him by deploying the 25th Amendment, said one aide who was not authorized to discuss the internal office situation and insisted on anonymity.<\/p>\n

When her district staffers in the state office took a break Tuesday, they returned to 75 voicemails on Iran an hour later, the aide said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office phones have not stopped ringing,\u201d said Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., at a press conference in Portland, urging House colleagues to immediately return to Washington.<\/p>\n

Dexter\u2019s office received more calls on Tuesday, 257, than it has ever received in a 24-hour period since the first-term lawmaker\u2019s team began keeping track.<\/p>\n

The groundswell appeared to be organic, rather than an orchestrated campaign to pressure lawmakers to act.<\/p>\n

While outside groups have been circulating some discussion points, including the legal details around invoking the 25th Amendment, there has not been an organized effort to flood the congressional offices with a strategic message, said one Democratic strategist familiar with the situation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private conversations.<\/p>\n

It was simply the \u201chorror\u201d of what Trump was saying, the strategist said, and the scale of the president\u2019s threats, that appeared to have sparked the mobilization.<\/p>\n

On the political right, several prominent figures including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, also suggested Trump should be removed from office through the 25th Amendment.<\/p>\n

Will Democrats make an impeachment push?<\/p>\n

Democrats twice impeached Trump<\/a> for actions taken during his first term, but he was acquitted each time. They have tried to avoid such debates for the last 16 months as they tried to center their midterm message on kitchen table issues rather than opposing a president who narrowly won the popular vote.<\/p>\n

Republicans also have the majority in the House and have easily fended off two previous efforts to impeach Trump in his second term. A significant number of Democrats have either joined with Republicans or voted \u201cpresent\u201d as the House blocked impeachment resolutions sponsored by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas.<\/p>\n

Then came Trump\u2019s threat on Tuesday morning to wipe out \u201can entire civilization.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cTemporary ceasefire or not, Trump already committed an impeachable offense. Congress needs to get back to work and remove him from office before he does more damage to our country and the world,\u201d said Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, a veteran of the war in Iraq.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear how House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries will handle the demands for another impeachment push. But Democratic leaders are holding a call on Friday with members of the House Judiciary Committee that is focused on \u201cTrump administration accountability and the 25th Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standing on the Capitol steps Thursday, Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Pa., said she supports impeachment, but nevertheless hit the brakes on it for now, as the Democrats are in the minority. Instead, she called on Republicans to stand up to Trump\u2019s threats, including by invoking the 25th Amendment.<\/p>\n

She predicted the imperative to remove Trump from office could only grow as negotiators navigate a fragile framework for a peace deal. Dean and other Democrats criticized the plan as \u201cchaotic\u201d and unworkable.<\/p>\n

Yet Dean said Trump\u2019s threat to destroy Iranian civilization should have already been enough. \u201cThe president brought the entire globe to watch his madness,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 President Donald Trump\u2019s threats to wipe out Iran, \u201ca whole civilization,\u201d ended the restraint that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[223486,23,1927,1930,3505,12,252747,793,3138,12481,41360,7590,801,1570,228242,17153,252748,13409,1576,3,111,170765,178932,12483,8638,3438,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,964,800],"class_list":{"0":"post-574593","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-al-green","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-ap-top-news","11":"tag-diplomacy","12":"tag-district-of-columbia","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-emily-randall","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-government-and-politics","17":"tag-hakeem-jeffries","18":"tag-impeachment","19":"tag-international-agreements","20":"tag-iran","21":"tag-iran-government","22":"tag-iran-war","23":"tag-karoline-leavitt","24":"tag-madeleine-dean","25":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","26":"tag-military-and-defense","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-politics","29":"tag-sara-jacobs","30":"tag-seth-moulton","31":"tag-suzan-delbene","32":"tag-u-s-democratic-party","33":"tag-u-s-republican-party","34":"tag-united-states","35":"tag-united-states-government","36":"tag-united-states-of-america","37":"tag-unitedstates","38":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","39":"tag-us","40":"tag-usa","41":"tag-war-and-unrest","42":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}