Staff Reports
Rep. Steve Cohen has just rolled out what might be the longest laundry list in Washington history: 26 articles of impeachment against President Trump. If you thought impeachment was supposed to be rare, solemn, and aimed at real crimes, Cohen’s filing reads more like a political wish list — a catalog of policy disagreements dressed up as offenses. It is headline-grabbing, but also revealing: Democrats are increasingly comfortable treating ordinary political choices as impeachable sins.
What Cohen actually filed
Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) put forward 26 separate articles accusing President Trump of everything from “undermining democracy” by casting doubt on elections to “self-aggrandizement” as an impeachable offense. The articles touch immigration orders, use of military force, tariffs, federal spending, pardons, and alleged personal financial benefit. In short, Cohen’s resolution targets nearly every major policy decision the administration has made — and then adds a few novel charges that sound like they came from a political grievance department.
Why this is plainly political
The central truth here is simple: when disagreement becomes a crime, you no longer have politics — you have punishment. Cohen’s broad menu of charges reads like an instruction manual for turning policy fights into legal jeopardy. If “self-aggrandizement” and policy positions on tariffs or immigration are grounds for removal, then any incoming administration that tries to change course can be haunted by permanently pending impeachments. That is not the rule of law. That is raw partisan power.
The slippery slope of vague offenses
Consider the first article accusing President Trump of “undermining democracy” by sowing doubt about elections. In a free country, citizens and leaders debate election integrity and public confidence. Turning that debate into an impeachable offense sets a dangerous precedent: anyone who questions the consensus can be removed by the next majority. The addition of vague, emotion-based charges like “self-aggrandizement” makes the whole package sound less like a legal indictment and more like a political purge manual.
Bottom line: politics, not justice
Representative Cohen’s 26 articles are unlikely to succeed while Republicans hold key levers of power. But they matter because they reveal the left’s playbook: expand impeachment into a catch-all tool for political revenge. Conservatives ought to call this out without apology. Defending normal democratic disagreement is not defending wrongdoing — it’s defending the right of voters, not headline-wielding committees, to decide who governs.
