Rahm Emanuel says Democrats should focus on ethics reforms rather than impeaching Trump

Rahm Emanuel, who was Barack Obama's first White House chief of staff, is advising Democrats against pursuing a third impeachment fight if the party wins the House in November. Speaking on NBC News' "Meet the Press" on October 4, he said the effort would go nowhere and would drag Washington back into partisan combat. His preferred course is to use oversight investigations to hold the Trump administration accountable and then enact an ethics package targeting the corruption he alleges in the administration. Corruption ranked as the second-biggest voter concern in a September NBC News poll, and both parties have run ads promising action on it, including a ban on congressional stock trading.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has stayed noncommittal, telling the program in June that nothing was ruled in or out and that the focus is affordability. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland said last month that impeachment is not off the table. Trump was impeached twice in his first term and never convicted.

Emanuel, a former two-term Chicago mayor, is widely rumored to be weighing a 2028 presidential bid. He avoided answering directly, saying he would run only if he believes he has what it takes.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NBC News’s reporting. Read the full story at NBC News →