U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said he “strongly” supports a push to impeach President Donald Trump a third time, but he told attendees at a Cobb County town hall Friday that the effort isn’t realistic until Democrats regain control of the U.S. House.
Ossoff, who is seeking a second term next year, took the question from Kate Denny, an Avondale Estates activist who pressed him on why there are “no calls for impeachment” from senior Democrats.
“This is unacceptable,” she said, pressing him to take a more combative stance. “You can do more. Think outside the box. He needs to be impeached.”
The Georgia Democrat told her that “there is no doubt that this president’s conduct has already exceeded any prior standard for impeachment by the United States House of Representatives.”
Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
He invoked Trump’s decision to invite top purchasers of his meme coin to an “intimate private dinner” with the president as a recent example of something that “rises to the level of an impeachable offense.”
“And the reality is that that’s just one of many. Defying a federal court order, for example. So I agree with you,” Ossoff said, referring to the ongoing standoff involving a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to return a man wrongly deported to El Salvador.
“As strongly as I agree with you, ma’am — and I regret if this is an unwelcome response — but my job is to be honest with you,” he said. “The only way to achieve what you want to achieve is to have a majority in the United States House of Representatives. And believe me, I’m working on it every single day.”
Like other Georgia Democrats, Ossoff has tried to rally supporters infuriated by Trump’s tariff-imposing, government-shrinking promises. Republicans say his strategy will alienate voters who just helped Trump recapture Georgia.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee called Ossoff’s remarks “disgusting” and accused him of working to “overturn the will of Georgia voters who just elected President Trump.”
And the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm, issued a similar attack against Ossoff, who is one of the top GOP targets in the Senate on the 2026 ballot.
“Sen. Jon Ossoff just said the quiet part out loud: Democrats want to flip the House so they can impeach, remove, and imprison President Trump,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said.
“This is the Democrats’ endgame. Not helping families, not securing the border, not lowering costs, but weaponizing government to destroy their political opponents. The American people won’t stand for it,” he said.
Ossoff and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock were among the majority of U.S. senators who voted in 2021 to convict Trump on an impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection.
But the 57-43 vote fell short of the 67 votes needed to convict. It was the second time Trump was acquitted in an impeachment trial.
Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ossoff’s answer reflects a political reality. The first move toward impeachment is taken by the U.S. House, which needs a simple majority of the chamber’s 435 members to bring charges. The Republican-controlled chamber, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson, has no intention of taking such a step.
But the question from Denny also reflected growing pressure from Democratic activists who want the party’s leaders to battle Trump head-on. U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams emphasized party unity at her town hall earlier this year when several attendees demanded an impeachment push.
“We cannot let them overwhelm us and start fighting each other,” said Williams, the former chair of the state Democratic Party. “Because we know that we’re fighting for the people of our country. We’re fighting for our Constitution. And we’re fighting for our democracy. We can’t let them pit us against each other.”
Credit: Greg Bluestein/AJC
Credit: Greg Bluestein/AJC
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