A Texas Democrat has spent years calling on the federal government to prosecute Donald Trump and cheering impeachment efforts, rhetoric that now fits a broader pattern of congressional Democrats openly planning another impeachment push if they retake the House.
James Talarico, a Texas Democrat, stood before the 2022 Texas Democratic Convention and issued a demand that left little room for interpretation. He called on then-President Joe Biden to "start using every tool in the toolbox," rattling off a wish list that included leasing federal land to abortion providers, declaring a public health emergency, impeaching Supreme Court justices, and, most pointedly, prosecuting Trump. Breitbart documented the full arc of Talarico's public statements, stretching from that 2022 convention through rallies in San Antonio and Austin in the summer of 2025.
His 2022 convention remarks were blunt:
"We need President Biden to start using every tool in the toolbox to protect our freedom. Lease federal land to abortion providers, declare a public health emergency, impeach justices who lied under oath, prosecute Trump and his fellow insurrectionists!"
That was not a one-off moment. Talarico returned to the same themes again and again, on cable television, at rallies, and on social media, building a public record that reads like a running campaign to use the machinery of government against a political opponent.
In 2024, Talarico appeared on MSNBC and unloaded a string of characterizations aimed at Trump, calling him "a business cheat, a pathological liar, a serial adulterer, a twice-impeached insurrectionist, a convicted felon, and an adjudicated rapist." During the same appearance, he framed his opposition in religious terms, saying "my faith leads me to support Vice President Harris and Governor Walz in this election."
That July, he went further, calling Trump a "useful idiot" for religious extremists.
By the summer of 2025, Talarico had taken the act on the road. At a June 27 rally in San Antonio, he cast the Democratic Party's history in Texas as one long brawl, name-dropping LBJ, Barbara Jordan, Rep. Joaquin Castro, and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke in a single breath. He framed impeachment as part of that fighting tradition:
"Texas Democrats know how to fight. Whether it was LBJ pushing the Great Society through Congress, or Barbara Jordan impeaching Richard Nixon, or our own Joaquin Castro impeaching Donald Trump, or Beto O'Rourke interrupting Greg Abbott's press conference in Uvalde, Texas Democrats know how to fight for the people, con ganas. We fight for the many against the powerful few, whether they are bullies, bigots, or billionaires."
Less than a month later, on July 25, Talarico delivered what was described as very similar remarks at a rally in Austin opposing redistricting. The message did not change. The audience did.
The pattern is worth pausing on. Talarico did not treat impeachment as a constitutional last resort reserved for genuine crises. He treated it as a rallying cry, a line to fire up a crowd, delivered alongside calls to prosecute a sitting or former president and impeach Supreme Court justices. That is not oversight. It is a political strategy dressed up in the language of accountability.
Talarico's rhetoric did not stay on the fringes. By the summer of 2026, a growing roster of congressional Democrats had dropped any pretense that a third impeachment of Trump was merely hypothetical. Rep. Robert Garcia of California said impeachment "always has to be on the table." Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland declared that Trump had "committed impeachable offenses." Rep. Johnny Olszewski, also of Maryland, said impeachment should "absolutely" be a priority if Democrats win the House, and that he would be willing to pursue and support it.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, no stranger to impeachment proceedings, said the effort was "not a taboo with us" and that Trump had "undoubtedly" committed impeachable offenses. Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, who voted to impeach Trump twice during his first term and served as an impeachment manager, said there was a "larger laundry list" of conduct in Trump's second term, though she declined to preview how she would vote.
The momentum was not limited to Washington. In Texas, Rep. Jasmine Crockett publicly called for formal impeachment proceedings against Trump during a Senate debate at the Texas AFL-CIO political convention, citing his use of tariffs as a starting point. More than 70 House Democrats had already co-sponsored articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, signaling that the appetite for impeachment extended well beyond the president himself. Talarico, for his part, told the same forum that "the administration has certainly committed impeachable offenses," Fox News reported.
Three House Democrats had already filed impeachment resolutions against Trump since he returned to office in January 2025, according to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. That fact alone tells you where the energy in the Democratic caucus sits.
Republican leaders were not caught off guard. Scalise predicted in August 2026 that Democrats would "impeach the president day one" if they won the majority. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said Democrats "will definitely" impeach Trump again if they win. Neither treated the possibility as remote.
History backs up their skepticism about the political upside of impeachment for Democrats. Trump was impeached twice during his first term, and the Senate acquitted him both times. The 67-vote threshold for conviction in the upper chamber has always made removal a near-impossibility, and National Review noted that Senate Republicans stood firmly behind Trump during earlier impeachment efforts, dismissing them as partisan overreach. The Trump reelection campaign and the RNC raised over $1 million in a single day by using the impeachment threat as a fundraising tool.
Sen. Rand Paul captured the Republican view plainly: "I think the Democrats have made this such a partisan exercise that I think most of the public has discounted the idea of it."
The broader Democratic landscape suggests the impeachment push is part of a deeper internal shift. In New York, a recent primary upset toppled Dan Goldman, one of the House's most prominent impeachment advocates, a sign that even within the party, the politics of impeachment carry risk.
Meanwhile, the party's left flank has continued to gain ground. A socialist primary sweep in New York deepened internal divisions and put House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in a difficult position, illustrating the factional pressures that make impeachment talk attractive to Democrats competing for progressive support.
Talarico's trajectory is instructive. He did not arrive at impeachment after careful deliberation. He arrived at it as an applause line in 2022 and never left. He paired it with calls to prosecute a political rival, impeach Supreme Court justices, and declare public health emergencies, a menu of executive overreach that would have drawn howls from Democrats if a Republican had proposed it.
He invoked his faith as a reason to support Kamala Harris. He called Trump a list of names on cable television. He rallied crowds in San Antonio and Austin with a version of history that cast impeachment as a proud Texas Democratic tradition, right alongside LBJ's Great Society and Beto O'Rourke's press conference interruption.
None of this happened in secret. Talarico said it on camera, on stage, and on social media. The record is public and consistent. And it matches the direction his party's leaders in Washington have been moving, openly, and with increasing confidence.
Jim Jordan, who has not been shy about using his committee chairmanship to hold the other side accountable, framed the stakes simply: Democrats will impeach Trump again if they get the chance. Talarico's own words, repeated over four years and multiple states, suggest Jordan is right.
Republicans have pushed back hard on Democratic overreach before, and the impeachment question will almost certainly define the 2026 midterm fight. Voters will decide whether a party that has spent years rehearsing impeachment lines at rallies deserves the gavel, or whether the country has heard enough.
When a party treats impeachment like a campaign slogan instead of a constitutional last resort, it tells you everything about where their priorities actually sit.
