After the House passed a vote “strongly condemning” the president for racist attacks against four Democratic politicians on Tuesday evening, congressman Al Green tabled a resolution calling for his impeachment.

He said the president was “unfit to defend the ideals that have made America great”.

Now the House has voted to table Mr Green’s resolution, effectively stopping it going forward but not killing it entirely. The vote was 332 to 95 to set aside the measure.

The vote highlights the how the issue of impeachment has become a headache for the Democratic Party. While many progressives want to press ahead, House speaker Nancy Pelosi believes it would harm the party’s 2020 election preparations, and she has sought to put off making any final decision on the matter.

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The vote marked the third time Mr Green, a Democratic congressman from Texas, had brought an impeachment resolution against the president.

The two earlier efforts were also tabled by the House.

But Wednesday’s vote was the first on such a resolution since Democrats took control of the House this January, following last November’s midterm elections.

Trump says that 'he can't imagine the courts' would allow an impeachment

However, the 95 Democrats effectively voting to keep the resolution alive was considerably more than in the two earlier earlier ballots, when just 58 and 66 Democrats respectively supported Mr Green’s measure.

As such, while the resolution will not go forward for now, supporters of Mr Trump’s impeachment can point out that around 40 per cent of Democrats in the House could back such a move.