US President Donald Trump has denounced the ongoing impeachment proceedings as “unfair” and claimed that House Democrats lacked evidence to make a “case” against him.

Addressing a meeting of conservative students in Florida on Saturday, Trump blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for delaying sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate and claimed that Democrats had “no case” to impeach him.

Trump called Pelosi “crazy Nancy,” and said the House Democrats were pursuing an “illegal unconstitutional, and hyper-partisan impeachment.”

“They really don’t believe in democracy, they can’t,” Trump said. “They are violating the Constitution.”

The US president also criticized Republicans who do not support his administration’s agenda, saying, the so-called “Never Trumpers” were “the dumbest human beings on earth.”

Trump has already accused the Democrats of stalling the impeachment proceedings and called for an “immediate trial” in the Senate.

In a historic vote on Wednesday, the US House of Representative impeached the Republican president on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, which stemmed from his pressure on Ukraine to investigate his political rivals as he withheld US aid. No Republicans voted in favor of the impeachment articles, while two Democrats voted against the first charge and three against the second.

Trump argued that the lack of defectors among the GOP shows that “the Republicans have never been so united” while the lack of consensus among Democrats is yet another indicator that their case “is so bad that they don’t even want to go to trial!”

A two-thirds majority vote would be needed in the Senate to remove the president from office. With Republicans in control of the upper chamber, Trump’s acquittal in a trial — scheduled to be held in January — seems certain.

House Democrats launched the inquiry against Trump in September after an unknown whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Democrats are looking into whether Trump abused his power by withholding $391 million in US security aid to Ukraine in exchange for the investigation.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the impeachment inquiry against him as “a hoax.”

Majority of voters favor Trump impeachment and removal: Poll

According to a new poll released on Friday, a majority of registered US voters supported impeaching and removing Trump from office.                          

The poll, conducted by The Politico/Morning Consult, found that 52 percent of voters supported the House’s decision to impeach Trump and 51 percent would support a decision by the Senate to remove him.

Eighty-five percent of Democrats said they approved of impeachment while just 17 percent of Republicans were of the the same opinion.

Independents were fairly divided, as 48 percent said they approved of the impeachment while 41 percent said the opposed it. 

The poll was carried out among a total of 1,387 registered voters surveyed between December 19 and 20, which came after the House voted to approve articles of impeachment against Trump. The margin of error in their responses was plus or minus three percentage points.

Manuel Marrero Cruz has been named Cuba’s prime minister, taking a political post that had been abolished more than four decades ago.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel on Saturday named the 56-year-old Marrero — who served as Cuba’s tourism minister for almost 16 years — as head of the government for a five-year term.

The post was last held by charismatic leader Fidel Castro in 1976. But it was abolished when Castro transitioned to the presidency, taking over from Osvaldo Dorticos after the country’s constitution was restructured.

A newer constitution was recognized in Cuba late last year, reviving the prime ministerial position and delegating some of the president’s responsibilities to the prime minister.

The premier has the power to hire and fire state employees and is in overall control of provincial governors — another position restored under the new constitution.

He is nominated by the president and approved by the National Assembly.

The revival of the prime minister’s post in Cuba is seen as part of a process of decentralization and generational change.

Source: Presstv

US President Donald Trump pressed his Republican allies Thursday to exert rigid control of his Senate trial and ensure a swift exoneration, a day after he was impeached in a historic rebuke by the House of Representatives.

A bitter fight looms over the coming trial, expected to begin as early as the second week of January, with Senate leaders already drawing battle lines over the evidence that will be allowed.

But its fate was left in limbo late Thursday when the Senate’s powerful majority leader, Mitch McConnell signalled the standoff with Democrats over trial particulars would continue into the new year.

“We remain at an impasse on these logistics,” McConnell said on the floor, as he announced the Senate had completed its business until January.

Trump seized on the uncertainty to attack House Democrats for seeking to demand key witnesses or dictate how McConnell should run the process.

“I want an immediate trial!” he boomed on Twitter.

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

So after the Democrats gave me no Due Process in the House, no lawyers, no witnesses, no nothing, they now want to tell the Senate how to run their trial. Actually, they have zero proof of anything, they will never even show up. They want out. I want an immediate trial!

Trump is charged with abuse of office and obstruction of Congress but Democrats, who led the three-month House investigation, are threatening to delay sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate until they are reassured the process will be fair.

“I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history,” Trump tweeted.

“Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!”

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!

Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump

I got Impeached last night without one Republican vote being cast with the Do Nothing Dems on their continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in American history. Now the Do Nothing Party want to Do Nothing with the Articles & not deliver them to the Senate, but it’s Senate’s call!

Trump, the third president in US history to be impeached, suggested that the Democrats would “lose by default” if they decided not to show up at a date determined by the Senate.

Stark partisan divide 

The House voted along party lines Wednesday to charge Trump with abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine’s president to investigate his potential White House challenger in 2020, the veteran Democrat Joe Biden.

Lawmakers also approved a second article of impeachment, obstruction of the congressional probe into his Ukraine dealings.

The vote leaves a permanent stain on Trump’s legacy — one that he appeared determined to mask with acquittal by the Senate.

At the White House Trump welcomed one of the two Democrats who voted against impeachment, congressman Jeff Van Drew, who announced he was switching parties to join the Republicans.

“You know what? It’s a phony deal and they cheapen the word ‘impeachment,'” Trump said.

“That should never again happen to another president.”

The Senate Republicans have a 53-47 majority that makes the math for clearing Trump straightforward — conviction and removal would require a two-thirds guilty vote on either charge.

The House must formally transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate for the case to be taken up there.

But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi balked at immediately transmitting them, saying she wants to understand what the parameters of the trial will be before naming House managers who will prosecute the case before the senators.

Minutes after Wednesday’s vote, Democrats began pushing for four current and former White House aides with direct knowledge of Trump’s Ukraine dealings to testify.

Trump blocked all four from testifying in the House, and Democrats believe their appearances at trial would bolster the case for conviction.

‘Slapdash case’ 

In a floor speech Thursday, McConnell ridiculed the witness demand and the evidence used as the basis for the impeachment articles.

He accused Democrats of a “partisan crusade” and said they had conducted the “most rushed, the least thorough and most unfair impeachment inquiry in modern history.”

No two impeachments are quite the same, but Trump was charged 84 days after Pelosi announced the inquiry.

Lawmakers voted to send Bill Clinton to a Senate trial 72 days after the inquiry was authorized while Richard Nixon resigned 183 days into his impeachment.

Andrew Johnson’s impeachment in 1868 took less than a week, although it is generally held up as the most frivolous. 

McConnell, who has substantial power in planning the Senate trial this time around, urged fellow jurors to exonerate Trump.

“The Senate must put this right. There is only one outcome that is suited to the paucity of evidence, the failed inquiry, the slapdash case,” he said.

But top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer blasted him for prejudging the case and rejecting the call for witnesses.

“Is the president’s case so weak that none of the president’s men can defend him under oath?” Schumer asked.

(AFP)

Donald Trump on Wednesday became the third U.S. president to be impeached as the House of Representatives formally charged him with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in a historic step that will inflame partisan tensions across a deeply divided America.

The Democratic-led House’s passage of two articles of impeachment on a mostly party-line vote sets the stage for a trial next month in the Republican-controlled Senate – friendlier terrain for Trump – on whether to convict and remove him from office.

No president in the 243-year history of the United States has been removed from office by impeachment. That would require a two-thirds majority in the 100-member Senate, meaning at least 20 Republicans would have to join Democrats in voting against Trump – and none have indicated they will.

The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, has predicted there is “no chance” his chamber will remove Trump when it holds its trial. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after the vote she would wait to name the House managers, or prosecutors, until she knew more about the procedures for the Senate trial. She did not specify when she would send the articles to the Senate.

“So far, we haven’t seen anything that looks fair to us,” Pelosi told reporters.

Trump, 73, is accused of abusing his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, as well as a discredited theory that Democrats conspired with Ukraine to meddle in the 2016 election.

Joe Biden✔@JoeBiden

President Trump abused his power, violated his oath of office, and betrayed our nation. This is a solemn moment for our country. But in the United States of America, no one is above the law — not even the President.

Democrats said Trump held back $391 million in security aid intended to combat Russia-backed separatists and a coveted White House meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as leverage to coerce Kiev into interfering in the 2020 election by smearing Biden.

The second article accused Trump of obstruction of Congress by directing administration officials and agencies not to comply with lawful House subpoenas for testimony and documents related to impeachment.

Trump, who is seeking another four-year term in the November 2020 presidential election, has denied wrongdoing and called the impeachment inquiry launched by Pelosi in September a “witch hunt.”

At a raucous rally for his re-election in Battle Creek, Michigan, as the House voted, Trump said the impeachment would be a “mark of shame” for Democrats and Pelosi, and cost them in the 2020 election.

“This lawless, partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat Party,” Trump said. “They’re the ones who should be impeached, every one of them.”

‘Here to defend democracy’

During a daylong debate before the vote, Pelosi read the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance and said: “We are here to defend democracy for the people.”

“If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary,” Pelosi said.

As the debate unfolded, Republicans accused Democrats of seeking to use an unfair, rigged process to nullify the 2016 election and influence the 2020 vote.

“The matter before the House today is based solely on a fundamental hatred of our president. It’s a sham, a witch hunt – and it’s tantamount to a coup against the duly elected president of the United States,” Republican Representative Mike Rogers said.

Republican Representative Mike Kelly compared the impeachment to the Japanese attack on Hawaii’s Pearl Harbor in 1941, calling the House proceedings another “date that will live in infamy” – similar to the words Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt used to describe the raid that killed about 2,400 people and led to America’s entry into World War Two.

The abuse of power article was passed on a 230-197 vote and the obstruction article was passed 229-198. All of the House Republicans opposed the articles, and two Democrats, Collin Peterson and Jeff Van Drew, voted no on both. Democrat Jared Golden voted against the obstruction charge but for abuse of power.

“The only part of the vote that was bipartisan was in opposition. The President is just getting stronger while support for the Democrats’ political theater has faded,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement.

U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic presidential candidate, voted present on both articles, declaring in a statement: “I could not in good conscience vote either yes or no.”

Polarised country

Trump’s election has polarised the United States, dividing families and friends and making it more difficult for politicians in Washington to find middle ground as they try to confront pressing challenges like the rise of China and climate change.

The impeachment vote comes ahead of Trump’s re-election campaign, which will pit him against the winner among a field of Democratic contenders, including Biden, who have repeatedly criticized Trump’s conduct in office and promised to make it a key issue.

“President Trump abused his power, violated his oath of office, and betrayed our nation,” Biden said on Twitter after the vote, adding: “In the United States of America, no one is above the law — not even the president.”

Reuters/Ipsos polls show that while most Democrats want to see him impeached, most Republicans do not. Televised hearings last month that were meant to build public support for impeachment appear to have pushed the two sides further apart.

The House vote on Wednesday was just the latest, but also unquestionably the biggest, in a string of controversies that have buffeted the turbulent presidency of the New York real estate mogul and former reality TV personality.

Central to the impeachment inquiry was a July 25 telephone call in which Trump asked Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who had joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma while his father was U.S. vice president.

Trump has accused the Bidens of corruption without offering evidence. They have denied wrongdoing.

A rough transcript of the call released by the White House showed Trump asking Zelenskiy, elected only three months earlier and eager for American support, to “do us a favor” and conduct the investigations in coordination with his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani in the prior months had engaged in a concerted effort to persuade Ukraine to carry out the investigations. Testimony before House committees showed that Giuliani helped engineer Trump’s removal last May of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, who was perceived as a roadblock to those investigations.

Impeachment is a remedy devised by the United States’ founders, wary of a monarch on American soil after breaking away from Britain and King George III in the 18th century, to enable Congress to remove a president who has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

Only two previous presidents have been impeached. The House in 1998 impeached President Bill Clinton on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice arising from a sexual relationship he had with a White House intern, but the Senate acquitted him. The House impeached President Andrew Johnson in 1868, focused on his removal of the secretary of war, but he was acquitted by one vote in the Senate.

In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment in the Watergate corruption scandal but before the full House could pass them.

(REUTERS)

The US House of Representatives is set to take a momentous and deeply polarizing vote on Wednesday when it is likely to impeach President Donald Trump on charges of abusing his office and obstructing a congressional probe.

The vote in the Democratic-controlled House is expected to fall almost entirely along party lines, underscoring the deep divide in Congress over Trump’s conduct – and the larger political schism within the nation itself.

Trump would become only the third US president to be impeached, an extraordinary check on presidential power spelled out in the US Constitution for executives who commit “high crimes and misdemeanors.” No president has ever been removed from office under its terms.

The vote, expected in the afternoon or early evening, would result in a trial next month in the US Senate in which House members would act as prosecutors. That chamber is controlled by Republicans, who have shown little interest in removing Trump from office.

House Democrats accuse Trump of abusing his power by asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a former US vice president and a leading Democratic contender in the 2020 election. Trump is also accused of obstructing the congressional investigation into the matter.

Trump has insisted he has done nothing wrong, and on Tuesday called the process “a total sham.” He sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a lengthy letter in which he accused her of engaging in a “perversion of justice.”

(Source: Reuters)

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has blasted President Donald Trump’s insult-laden letter urging her to halt the impeachment proceedings, describing the letter’s content as “ridiculous” and “really sick.”

Pelosi, the highest ranking Democrat in Congress, told reporters on Tuesday that she had not gotten the opportunity to read the Republican president’s whole letter, which accused Democrats of waging an “unconstitutional abuse of power” by moving forward with an impeachment vote.

“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “I mean, I haven’t really fully read it, we’ve been working. I’ve seen the essence of it though and it’s really sick.”

The president’s letter accused Pelosi of putting on a “false display of solemnity” throughout the inquiry and declared that “no intelligent person believes what you are saying.”

In Trump’s letter to Pelosi earlier on Tuesday, he issued a stark warning to congressional Democrats, saying that if they pursue impeachment against him, they will be “declaring war on American democracy.”

Trump also called any impeachment effort an “illegal partisan coup.” He issued the charges one day before a possible House debate on approving articles of impeachment against Trump.

Trump is this week likely to become the third US president to be impeached.

The House is likely to take up impeachment on Wednesday, setting the stage for a vote this week on whether to approve charges stemming from his effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden.

The House Judiciary Committee voted 23-17 on Friday along party lines to approve the two charges against Trump and to send the matter to the full chamber.

If the charges are approved in the House, the matter would be sent to the Republican-led Senate to hold a trial on whether to remove Trump from office.

Democrats, who enjoy a 36-seat majority in the House, are expected to win an impeachment vote, which requires a simple majority.

Republicans hold 53 of the 100 seats in the Senate, where they appear likely to prevail in any trial against Trump, which would require a two-thirds majority of those present to remove him from office.

No US president has been removed as a direct result of impeachment.

Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before he could be removed, while Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached by the House, respectively in 1868 and 1998, but not convicted by the Senate.

Democrats have accused Trump of endangering the US Constitution, jeopardizing national security and undermining the integrity of next year’s US presidential election by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate Biden and his son Hunter Biden, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Republicans have defended Trump and accused Democrats of a partisan effort aimed at overturning his upset 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton. Trump has branded the entire impeachment drive a sham.

Source: Presstv

US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has defended the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, calling the US president a “threat” to national security.

Nadler said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that the “integrity” of US elections was at risk since Trump had solicited foreign interference in the previous vote.

“This president conspired, sought foreign interference in the 2016 election,” the House Judiciary Committee chairman said. “He is openly seeking interference in the 2020 election and he poses a continuing threat to our national security and to the integrity of our elections to our democratic system itself. We cannot permit that to continue.”

Trump’s election campaign is accused of having colluded with the Russian government to try to influence the 2016 presidential election.

US intelligence agencies claim Moscow meddled in the election with a campaign of email hacking and online propaganda aimed at sowing discord in the United States, hurting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and helping Trump.

Both Trump and Russia have repeatedly denied the accusations.

Schiff backs impeachment case

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff was the other leading Democrat that defended the the impeachment case against Trump and described obstruction of Congress as the “most serious of the articles” of impeachment against the US president.

Schiff also slammed his Republican colleagues for allowing the White House to ignore congressional subpoenas.

“Going to court is not an impeachable offense but stonewalling completely, refusing to comply with the oversight of Congress, particularly during an impeachment inquiry is,” Schiff said.

Schiff cautioned that if the Republican party is “prepared to say a president of the US can simply say no to any Congressional subpoena and tie up Congress for years in litigation, it is going to have to accept corruption, malfeasance, negligence, misconduct, in any future president, Democrat or Republican.”

“In many respects, I think this is the most serious of the articles because it would fundamentally alter the balance of power and allow for much greater misconduct in the chief executive of the country,” he said.

The US president is facing an impeachment inquiry in the US House over pressuring Ukraine to find dirt on his political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, who is running to beat him in the 2020 election.

‘I’d impeach Obama if he did the same as Trump’

Elsewhere in his remarks, the House Intelligence Committee chairman said that he would even support impeaching former President Barack Obama if he had committed the same alleged offense that led to approving articles of impeachment against Trump.

“I don’t think any of us have any question that had Barack Obama engaged in the activity, the conduct which is the subject these articles of impeachment, every one of these Republicans would be voting to impeach him,” Schiff said. “And you know something, I have to hope to hell, George, if it were Barack Obama, I would vote to impeach him.”

Source: Presstv

Former US Vice President and leading 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden says he is “running to restore the soul of America.”

In a statement issued on the seventh anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting on Saturday, Biden said he will prioritize efforts to combat the rise of gun violence in the United States should he win the presidency.

“I said when I got into this race that I’m running to restore the soul of America,” he said in a statement. “Few things make the need for that more clear than school shootings – what kind of nation are we if we simply accept that kids learn active shooter drills with their ABCs?”

“I know that we can defeat the NRA,” he continued. “I’m the only candidate in the race who has done it before – twice, when I was in the Senate. As president I’ll do it again.”

Biden has proposed to repeal the federal law that protects gun manufacturers from civil liability claims, and ban on the manufacturing and sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and implementation of background checks for all gun sales.

He had called for a reinstatement of an assault weapons ban in the wake of two mass in August that killed 31 people.

The 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban bill was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton. It expired in September 2004. Since then an assault weapons ban hasn’t been in place in the US.

Biden claimed that along with Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) he got the bill passed in 1994, and said he “fought hard to extend” the ban in 2004, but failed to do so.  

Biden said that data about mass shootings showed that from 1994 to 2004 there were fewer mass shootings in the country.

On Saturday, the former vice president claimed that gun control could be a galvanizing issue heading into the 2020 race.

“There’s a straight line from the brave parents of Newtown, many of whom have organized at the grassroots level and in the courts, to the activism of the Parkland students, to the millions of others who’ve said ‘enough’ in the long years between and since then,” he said, referring to other school shootings.

“This call for change is growing louder and louder, and is using every tool of our democracy, in the streets, voting booths, and courts,” he added.

Many have called for measures such as an assault weapon ban, universal background checks and other gun control reforms long stymied by partisan fighting in Washington.

Democrats have criticized Republican President Donald Trump’s mixed messaging on possible support for some gun control measures.

Several 2020 Democratic presidential contenders have also said that they would use the executive powers of the presidency to pursue gun-control measures if Congress again fails to act.

Trump meanwhile has suggested that he could sway the nation’s powerful pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA), to drop its opposition to gun restrictions.

Firearms regulation advocates state that restricting and tracking gun access would result in safer communities, while gun rights advocates state that increased firearm ownership by citizens reduces crime and assert that criminals have always had easy access to firearms.

The firearms industry in the US is tempting children at very low ages to take up shooting by selling brightly colored guns.

On December 14, 2012, twenty children and six adults were fatally shot by Adam Lanza, the gunman who later killed himself at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in the town of Newtown in the US state of Connecticut.

Following the shooting, a task force funded by the NRA recommended more armed guards and teachers in schools. Now President Trump is voicing support for that recommendation.

Source: Presstv

A badly divided House Judiciary Committee voted 23-17 along party lines to approve articles of impeachment charging President Donald Trump with both abusing the power of his office over the Ukraine scandal and obstructing House Democrats’ attempts to investigate him for it.

Trump is expected to become the third US president to be impeached when the full Democratic-led House votes on the charges, likely next week, setting up a trial in the Republican-controlled Senate. The Republicans have shown no signs of wanting to remove Trump from office.

In congressional hearings that have gripped Washington, Democrats have accused the president of endangering the US Constitution, jeopardizing national security and undermining the integrity of the 2020 election by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a July phone call to investigate former US vice president Joe Biden, Trump’s potential Democratic opponent on voting day next November.

“Today is a solemn and sad day,” said Representative Jerrold Nadler, the committee’s Democratic chairman. “For the third time in a little over a century and a half, the House Judiciary Committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president.”

Republicans have defended Trump and accused Democrats of a politically motivated farce aimed at overturning his surprise 2016 presidential election victory.

“Impeachment is a hoax. It’s a sham,” Trump told reporters at the White House after the committee’s vote. “There was nothing done wrong. To use the power of impeachment for this nonsense is an embarrassment to this country.”

If impeached, Trump will go on trial in the Senate in January, just as the 2020 presidential campaign begins to pickup speed.

Trump has alleged that Biden, a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, was involved in corruption in Ukraine and should be investigated by authorities there, but the president has offered no evidence. Biden has denied any wrongdoing.

Abuse and obstruction charges

The abuse of power charge against Trump also accuses him of freezing nearly $400 million in US security aid to Ukraine and offering a possible White House meeting to Zelenskiy to get him to publicly announce investigations of Biden and his son Hunter, who was on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

Trump also asked Ukraine to investigate a debunked theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election.

The obstruction charge against Trump is based on his directives to current and former administration officials such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, even if that meant defying subpoenas.

A senior Democratic aide said the House tentatively plans to hold an impeachment debate next Wednesday ahead of a vote on whether to impeach Trump and send him for trial.

Republicans say the president did nothing improper in his call with Zelenskiy, and that there is no direct evidence he withheld aid or a White House meeting in exchange for a favor. Democrats say Trump stopped top aides from testifying.

Signaling investors’ lack of concern at the political upheaval, US stocks hit fresh record highs on Friday on optimism over a possible trade deal between China and the United States before paring gains.

As the Judiciary Committee was voting, China announced progress and said Beijing would cancel tariffs scheduled to take effect. Trump followed up by tweeting that a trade deal had been reached.

Trump is running for re-election in 2020 in what is expected to be a bitter contest with the Democratic nominee.

Senate trial would follow House vote for impeachment

No US president has been removed as a direct result of impeachment. Republican Richard Nixon resigned before he could be impeached for the Watergate scandal, and Democrats Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton were impeached by the House but not convicted by the Senate.

Twenty Republican senators would have to join all 45 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats to vote to oust Trump from office.

The trial would be presided over by US Chief Justice John Roberts. The length of the proceedings would depend on whether witnesses were called, a decision that is up to a majority vote in the chamber.

Trump has signaled an interest in calling many witnesses, including Biden and Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, believing a big trial would be good for Republicans.

A lengthy trial would eat up weeks of time shortly before the first Democratic presidential nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

But influential Republican senators have said they want to keep any trial as short as possible.

“This needs to come to a quick end,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, a Republican who has become a staunch defender of Trump, wrote on Twitter.

Trump said on Friday he was open to either a short or long process in the Senate.

“I’ll do whatever I want … So I’ll do long or short,” he said.

“I wouldn’t mind a long process, because I’d like to see the whistleblower, who’s a fraud,” Trump said, referring to the anonymous intelligence official who set off the House impeachment investigation by raising a flag about Trump’s call with Zelenskiy in a whistleblower complaint.

Source: FRANCE 24 with AP

US lawmakers clashed Thursday ahead of a committee vote to approve charges of presidential abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, a fateful step toward the impeachment of Donald Trump.

The House Judiciary Committee began a second day of historic debate with the parties holding diametrically opposed views on the move to oust the president from office for misconduct.

If, as predicted, the full House votes next week against Trump, he will become only the third US commander in chief ever to be impeached and placed on trial in the Senate.

The president stands accused of leveraging critical military aide to Ukraine and a White House meeting to pressure Kiev to open an investigation into Trump’s political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, and a debunked theory that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Democrats.

Wednesday saw hours of impassioned debate, including an appeal to Republicans by the committee’s Democratic chairman, Jerry Nadler, not to “justify behavior that we know in our heart is wrong.”

Lawmakers were to focus on the procedural nitty gritty of amending the articles of impeachment on Thursday, but rancorous clashes punctuated the session.

“The president committed the highest crime against the constitution by abusing his office,” Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell said.

“Cheating in an election,” he went on. “Inviting foreign interference for a purely personal gain while jeopardizing our national security and the integrity of our elections.”

The outcome in the House Judiciary Committee is essentially a fait accompli, with the majority-Democratic panel expected to reject all Republican efforts to change the articles and approve the charges, sending them to the entire House of Representatives for passage next week.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who announced the impeachment inquiry in September, would not identify a specific day next week for an impeachment vote.

When pressed, she also dismissed concerns that a handful of moderate House Democrats, including some representing districts that voted for Trump, would likely defect and oppose impeachment.

“People will vote the way they vote,” Pelosi said.

– ‘Not the facts’ –

Republicans repeatedly asserted that the president has committed no crime, and they quickly moved to dismiss the first charge in the nine-page resolution, abuse of power.

“Article one ignores the truth,” Republican Jim Jordan declared. “Those are not the facts.”

The White House has refused to participate in the House inquiry, ordering key figures swept up in the Ukraine saga not to testify, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

That historic stonewalling has prevented several key firsthand witnesses from presenting potentially vital evidence, leading Democrats to file their second charge — obstruction of Congress — against the president.

Trump himself has lashed out online repeatedly at his Democratic rivals in recent days.

On Thursday, he retweeted dozens of people who have rushed to his defense, including his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who stands accused of orchestrating a pressure campaign against Ukraine outside of regular diplomatic channels.

Most indications are that the Republican majority in the Senate will ultimately protect Trump from conviction and removal.

But impeachment would mar his record as president and could affect his reelection chances in November 2020.

At a political rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, he ridiculed the charges.

“Everybody said, this is impeachment light,” Trump said, adding “there are no crimes” and Democrats are just trying to win the next election.

As the back-and-forth began in committee, the panel’s top Republican Doug Collins branded the proceedings a “farce of substance,” and seized on Nadler’s legalistic effort to tweak the resolution so that the names Donald J. Trump and Donald John Trump would be the same.

Seeking that change “simply shows the, frankly, absurdity of where we’re at,” Collins said.

Source: AFP