Click to see full-size image
On December 5th, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the House committees investigating US President Donald Trump to proceed with articles of impeachment.
“The president’s actions have seriously violated the Constitution,” Pelosi said during a televised address. “Our democracy is at stake. The president leaves us no choice but to act.”
A little more than two work weeks remain before lawmakers break for Christmas, with votes on the articles of impeachment expected to be among the House’s final actions prior to recess.
Congress has yet to decide how to keep the government operating beyond December 20th, when current funding instructions expire.
Tune in as I make a statement about the status of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry. #DefendOurDemocracy https://t.co/8IAQNuO1GT
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 5, 2019
Pelosi’s entire announcement transcript can be found here. [pdf]
During CNN’s Town Hall, Pelosi tried to move the discussion past the impeachment process, but all the questions led in that direction.
The evidence is clear: President Trump’s actions put our democracy in jeopardy. #PelosiTownHall pic.twitter.com/Cw1lRCQm4z
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 6, 2019
On the other side, US President Donald Trump maintains that the Democrats have no impeachment case and that they hope to impeach him for “nothing.”
…..trial in the Senate, and so that our Country can get back to business. We will have Schiff, the Bidens, Pelosi and many more testify, and will reveal, for the first time, how corrupt our system really is. I was elected to “Clean the Swamp,” and that’s what I am doing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2019
He further said that the Republicans had never been more united and that they would “win.”
….This will mean that the beyond important and seldom used act of Impeachment will be used routinely to attack future Presidents. That is not what our Founders had in mind. The good thing is that the Republicans have NEVER been more united. We will win!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 5, 2019
The White House presented some citations from media, who present the overall idea that became quite obvious during the Democrats impeachment proceedings – little evidence was presented, and most, if not all witnesses had no firsthand knowledge, some of them were even openly antagonistic and couldn’t even be considered neutral regarding the case.
The liberal "experts" invited to testify by House Democrats yesterday have had an appetite for impeachment since before President @realDonaldTrump even took office.
Democrat leaders are hoping you won't look into it.
Today's top stories: https://t.co/DaQTQQYSok pic.twitter.com/FFQJOx2K2U
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 5, 2019
Vice President Mike Pence called for the “charade” to end so that the US government could focus on other pressing matters.
While Democrats continue their obsession with impeaching President @realDonaldTrump & try to overturn the will of the American people, the #USMCA, drug pricing, military funding & much more is falling to the wayside. Enough is enough, it's time for this charade to END.
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) December 5, 2019
Other democrats also expressed their discontent with the situation:
The audacity of Nancy Pelosi.
She just claimed, “This has absolutely nothing to do with politics."
House Democrats boycotted the inauguration, lied about Russia collusion, and admitted they want to impeach @realDonaldTrump to stop him from winning in 2020.
It is ALL politics! pic.twitter.com/Cjv1w2vmd8
— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) December 5, 2019
And, as per the Hill, a speedy impeachment trial may be a desirable course for both the Republicans and Democrats.
An unnamed Democratic senator warned a lengthy impeachment trial would “freeze” the Democratic presidential primary by putting pressure on Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar and other candidates to miss valuable campaign time.
“I think that people in New Hampshire and Iowa would say, ‘You should be doing your job.’ That’s what I think they would say and it’s a problem. It freezes the race,” said the Democratic senator. “I think both parties have incentive to try to get this wrapped up.”
“If you’re Trump, you want it over as fast as you can because he can say, ‘Look, I was acquitted, there was nothing,’” the Democratic lawmaker added.
Republican Senator Ron Johnson said that a speed trial was necessary, because regardless of what happened, it was unlikely that Democrats could get the necessary 67 votes in the Congress to convict the President of anything.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, I want to get this over as quickly as possible,” Johnson said. “It may be pretty easy to get the 51 votes to move to a final vote,” he said.
Publicly, Democratic senators say they will spend as much time as it takes to give House-passed articles of impeachment a thorough review.
“I don’t care about timetables,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) who said the House impeachment managers and Trump’s defense team “need to do what they need to do.”
“Trump’s people say they want their day in court, they say [the evidence] is hearsay. Well, the House needs to start hearing from people that are accused of wrongdoing or those that observed things so I don’t think setting any deadline or timetable makes sense,” he said.
Whether Trump will get impeached seems rather unlikely, but time will tell.
MORE ON THE TOPIC:
