Democratic lawmakers are set to roll out articles of impeachment on Tuesday accusing President Donald Trump of abusing of power and obstructing Congress.
With only 11 months to the next general election, the development in Congress would make Trump the third president to be formally impeached in over 200 years of the US history.
The Chairman of the House Foreign Affiars Committee, Eliot Engel, who is one of the key Democrats’ leaders expected to make formal announcement on Tuesday said that the House would do what it is supposed to do about the issue. “This is not a happy day, but I think we are doing what we have to do.”
Democrats in the House have accused the President of abusing his power by withholding nearly $400 million in US military aid to Ukraine and the prospect of a visit to the Oval Office by new President Volodymyr Zelensky in order to coerce the former Soviet state into investigating a potential 2020 foe, Joe Biden.
Such conduct, the democrats believe is worthy of impeachment, insisting that it amounts to bribery, putting Trump’s own political goals ahead of America’s national interests and effectively invited a foreign power to interfere in a US election.
Republicans have struggled to counter the facts laid out by witnesses drawn from ranks of foreign policy and military officers. But they deny Trump’s did anything wrong at all, let along anything that reaches the level of impeachment.
“It’s a disgrace. A hoax,” the President said at the White House on Monday, without bothering to counter any of the evidence.
The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, meanwhile accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of rushing to impeachment – with expectations that Democrats will hold a full House vote on the issue next week.
“The speaker of the House after hearing one day of testimony in the Judiciary Committee, said, ‘Go write articles.’ Facts be damned,” Collins said.
Democrats counter that Trump has denied more than 70 requests for evidence and blocked testimony from key officials, giving them no choice but to declare that he obstructed Congress in its lawful oversight function. They have elected not to launch legal challenges to compel testimony that could drag on for months.
The prospect of impeachment represents the most serious political reverse yet for Trump. Yet given his habit of skipping past political scandals – again on display Monday as the Justice Department inspector general debunked his conspiracy theories about the FBI – it’s unlikely he will rein in his convention-busting behavior.
