Tom Suozzi Warns Democrats Against Rushing to Impeach Trump
A New York Democrat who won reelection last week is warning his party not to impeach President Donald Trump again once it takes control of Congress in January.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, a moderate, said Democrats risk wasting their new power if they put impeachment and partisan investigations ahead of the economic worries that drove the election.
"Democrats have got to not squander this opportunity. They won. Now what?" Suozzi said Sunday on "Cats Roundtable."
"A Waste of Time"
Suozzi, who represents a Long Island swing district, said Democrats should spend most of their energy on affordability and the problems voters face every day.
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"You've got to spend 75% of your time on affordability and fixing the problems we face, and 25% of your time on your constitutional mandate to do oversight," he said. "But it would be stupid to rush into impeachment. That would be a waste of time. It would turn everybody off. Focus on solving problems that affect real people's lives."
He made a similar case right after Tuesday's election, when Democrats won control of both chambers. "It's not going to be worthwhile for us to just win a race and then to just go into attack mode again," Suozzi said Wednesday. "That's not what the people want. They've rejected that."
"So I think it would be foolhardy for Democrats to rush headlong into an impeachment process. I think that would be a tragic mistake," he added.
In an op-ed published the same day, Suozzi wrote that "running headlong into impeachment would be politically self-destructive." He warned that a third impeachment of Trump "would become another partisan spectacle, drowning out the issues voters elected us to address."
Suozzi said he would oppose any impeachment effort driven by "political anger, revenge or retribution," while maintaining that oversight of the administration is still necessary.
Investigations Still Coming
Democrats will gain far more investigative power when the new Congress convenes. Committee chairs will have subpoena authority and are expected to look into Trump's family business interests, cryptocurrency ventures, the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the White House ballroom project. Lawmakers have also discussed probes into immigration enforcement, government contracts and the administration's handling of the Iran war.
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Suozzi said that oversight should go on, but argued that healthcare, housing, groceries and other cost-of-living issues should take up most of Congress' time.
"Capitalists, Not Socialists"
The congressman also urged his party not to read its midterm wins as a mandate to lurch left. "We are capitalists, not socialists. We're for safety, not lawlessness. We're mainstream, not extreme. We're proud, not ashamed, of America," he said.
"I'm a new kind of old-fashioned Democrat," Suozzi added. He also backed House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries for speaker, calling him "a very competent, capable, talented leader," and warned that any progressive effort to block Jeffries would be "a big mistake."
Suozzi won reelection Tuesday by defeating Republican Michael LiPetri in a rematch of their 2024 race. His district covers parts of Nassau and Queens counties.
Trump has brushed off the impeachment talk, telling the Washington Examiner he was "not even a little bit" worried and that pursuing it would hurt Democrats politically. Trump was impeached twice during his first term, in 2019 and 2021, and was acquitted by the Senate both times.