LAST UPDATE | 18 Dec 2019
DONALD TRUMP IS facing becoming the third impeached president in US history as a bitterly divided House of Representatives heads for a vote on whether he abused his power.
The 73-year-old US President accused Democrats of waging an “assault on America” as lawmakers delivered impassioned floor speeches for and against impeaching the president.
The House, where Democrats hold 233 seats to the Republicans’ 197, is expected to approve two articles of impeachment – abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – after debate lasting much of the day.
That would set up a January trial in the Senate, where Trump’s Republicans hold a 53-47 seat edge, making his removal from office unlikely.
Trump is accused of withholding military assistance to try to force Ukraine to open a corruption probe into one of his 2020 rivals, Democrat Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
The president is also accused of obstructing Congress by refusing to cooperate with the impeachment investigation, barring staff from testifying and holding back documentary evidence.
The stark partisan split over impeaching the convention-wrecking chief executive was on display from the very start of the solemn proceedings on the House floor.
“It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in her opening remarks, which were greeted with applause by fellow Democrats.
“He gave us no choice,” Pelosi said.
The president is an ongoing threat to our national security, and the integrity of our elections, the basis of our democracy.
Massachusetts Democrat Lori Trahan said the case against Trump was clear.
“The facts are black and white,” Trahan said. “President Trump abused the power of his office for personal and political gain and then he engaged in a cover-up.”
Doug Collins, a Republican lawmaker from Georgia, countered that “the president did nothing wrong”.
Democrats are seeking to impeach Trump because they are afraid to face him in the November 2020 presidential election, Collins said.
“They said we can’t beat him if we don’t impeach him,” he said. “The American people will see through this.”
Debbie Lesko, a Republican from Arizona, said Trump was the victim of “the most unfair, politically biased rigged process that I have seen in my entire life”.
There is no proof, none, that the president has committed an impeachable offence.
The House debate has also taken some strange turns throughout the evening.
Republicans, at one point, held a moment of silence for the 2016 election.
An Ohio congressman accused Democrats of trying to overturn the results of the last election by impeaching Trump. Bill Johnson asked for a moment of silence to remember the “63 million Americans” who voted for Trump and have been forgotten.
All the Republicans in the House chamber stood up. Democrats stayed glued to their seats.
Republican lawmaker Barry Loudermilk, who hails from the deeply conservative state of Georgia, said that Trump has been treated worse than Jesus before his crucifixion.
“During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats afforded this president and this process,” Loudermilk said, referring to the Roman governor of Judea who approved the death sentence.
Jerry Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, shot back that the president had been “given the opportunity to come and testify before the Judiciary Committee … He declined to do so”.
‘Assault on America’
The bitter polarisation in the House is reflected in recent opinion polls.
50% of the respondents in a Fox News poll said they support impeaching and removing Trump from office. 41% opposed impeachment.
In a CNN poll, 45% said Trump should be impeached and removed while 47% said he should not.
Facing the biggest political crisis yet of his tumultuous three years in office, Trump adopted his usual tone of fiery defiance.
“THIS IS AN ASSAULT ON AMERICA, AND AN ASSAULT ON THE REPUBLICAN PARTY!!!!” Trump tweeted this evening.
“Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG! A terrible Thing.”
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told AFP that Trump would be “working all day”.
“He will be briefed by staff throughout that day, and could catch some of the proceedings between meetings.”
Trump flew this evening to the electoral swing state of Michigan for a rally with thousands of his most loyal supporters – possibly right around the time of the House vote.
‘Really sick’
Although impeachment will put an ugly asterisk by Trump’s name in the history books – alongside Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 – he predicts the scandal will galvanise his base in next year’s election.
Yesterday, he wrote an extraordinary six-page letter to Pelosi accusing her of an “attempted coup,” a “charade” and treating him less fairly than at a witch trial.
Pelosi has tried to show she is taking the high road in a saga that has seen both sides, and especially Trump himself, repeatedly accuse opponents of everything from treason to stupidity.
But she dropped her icy demeanor after Trump published his lengthy letter, much of which read like an extended version of his stream-of-consciousness tweets.
The letter was “really sick,” Pelosi said.
Protests in support of impeachment were held in several cities including New York, Boston, New Orleans and Los Angeles and as the House debate got underway, demonstrators rallied outside making their views clear in giant red letters spelling out the word “IMPEACH.”
Includes reporting by Associated Press and - © AFP 2019
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