‘Whatever Position’: Democrat Trying To Impeach Trump Reportedly Once Considered Running As Republican

Democratic Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar, the Indian-born millionaire who introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump on Monday, considered running as an independent or even a Republican, multiple consultants told The Intercept.

Thanedar, who filed seven articles of impeachment against Trump on Monday, branded himself as a “fiscally savvy Bernie” Sanders during a failed gubernatorial run in 2018. But consultants  told The Intercept that he was open to running as an independent or a Republican when he spoke to them before beginning his campaign.

🚨 Democrat Congressman Shri Thanedar of Michigan has filed SEVEN articles of impeachment against President Trump. pic.twitter.com/OUYGf5QiLW

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 28, 2025

Michigan Democratic consultant Adrian Hemond and Republican consultant Dan McMaster told The Intercept they had a meeting together with Thanedar.

“We asked him what party he wanted to run from and he said he didn’t care,” Hemond claimed. “He said whichever side we thought he had the best chance to win on.”

While pressing Thanedar on his positions, the consultants allegedly found him to be ambivalent at best on issues like abortion.

“His position was mostly that he didn’t care. That he would adopt whatever position was beneficial for him to run for governor,” Hemond told the outlet.

Thanedar’s political shapeshifting was allegedly so apparent that consultants thought he was on different sides of the same issue. (RELATED: Backbench Democrat Uses Taxpayer Funds To Promote Trump Impeachment Effort)

“He did admit he was pro-life, which is interesting, 1746225666 that he is running as a progressive Democrat,” Dan McMaster, a consultant with Republicans, told The Intercept.

Another consultant, Joe DiSano, head of the consulting agency DiSano Strategies, said he concluded that the pharma entrepreneur was “adamantly pro-choice” after two meetings in January and February 2017.

Thanedar countered the claims that he was not settled on a pro-choice stance.

“I am 100% pro-choice. Look at my factual voting record, not lies told by people upset I didn’t hire them,” he told the Daily Caller. He then provided links to his Congressional Scorecard from Planned Parenthood.

Despite lauding Sanders and progressives publicly, DiSano claimed he got the impression that Thanedar was staunchly opposed to everything Bernie stood for.

“My key takeaway from my experience with Shri is his disdain for ‘progressives.’ He repeatedly expressed disdain for them, and Bernie Sanders in particular,” DiSano told the outlet.

Thanedar disputed that notion in an interview with The Intercept.

“I love Bernie, I love his ideas, and I met him, I followed him. So, I don’t know where he gets all that,” he said of DiSano’s comments.

DiSano claimed he terminated his relationship with Thanedar because “he is way too slippery for me,” according to The Intercept. Thanedar claimed told the outlet he fired the consultant for overcharging him for polling data.

Thanedar confirmed that he met with both Hemond and DiSano and said he did not want to give away his positions at the time of the meetings, according to the outlet.

Thanedar caught flak from progressives for seemingly fawning over Secretary of State Marco Rubio in 2016 when Rubio, then a Republican Senator from Florida, was running to be his party’s nominee for president.

A C-Span video from a Rubio campaign rally in Iowa caught Thanedar in the audience nodding and smiling along to Rubio’s comments, even clapping after Rubio said “Hillary Clinton can not be commander in chief of the United States.”

His applause came despite donating $2,300 to Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2007, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. He also donated $2,300 to then-Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, though he told the Intercept that the McCain donation was an outlier as he’s donated nearly $29,000 to Democrats.

He dismissed allegations that his attendance of Rubio’s rally was tantamount to support.

“In Iowa, you get such access to the politicians you would otherwise not get,” he told The Intercept. “So I went to house parties, I went to several presentations by the Clintons, I went to several rallies by Bernie. I also went to some rallies by the Republican candidates. But I’m more interested in the process.”

DiSano claimed Thanedar “was particularly enamored with Rubio.”

Democrat Shri Thanedar is trying to impeach Trump and is now running this billboard in his district, which is TAXPAYER-FUNDED. pic.twitter.com/0oY1m9OMrj

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 29, 2025

Thanedar ultimately lost the 2018 Democratic primary for the governor’s race, finishing third behind current governor Gretchen Whitmer and former public health professor Abdul el-Sayed.

He ran for Congress in Michigan’s 13th district in 2022 and won, and then secured reelection in 2024. He now faces two primary challengers for 2026.