Democrats in the House of Representatives have unveiled two articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, accusing the US president of abusing power and obstructing Congress. The move sets Mr Trump on course to be just the third president in US history to be impeached. Speaking behind a wooden panel covered in American flags, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the heads of six committees outlined their reasons for moving to a historic vote on impeachment on Tuesday. “We must be clear: no one, not even the president, is above the law,” said Jerry Nadler, the chair of the Judiciary Committee, as he announced the formal charges. The first article charges Mr Trump with abusing his power by putting his political concerns over America’s national interest, the second states Mr Trump obstructed Congress in its attempts to investigate him. To Impeach a President who has proven through results, including producing perhaps the strongest economy in our country’s history, to have one of the most successful presidencies ever, and most importantly, who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness! 2020Election— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019 At the centre of the case is claims Mr Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine in order to pressure the country’s president to announce investigations into Joe Biden, the president’s most likely opponent in the 2020 election. “Our president holds the ultimately public trust,” Mr Nadler said. “When he betrays that trust and puts himself before country, he endangers the Constitution, he endangers our democracy, and he endangers our national security.” Mr Nadler stressed that the Democrats “do not take this action lightly”, but warned that Mr Trump had undermined “the integrity of our next election” and violated “his oath to the American people”. Those actions, he said, amounted to “high crimes and misdemeanours” – the criteria that the US Constitution states must be met to trigger articles of impeachment. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence committee, presented the Democrats’ case against Mr Trump, saying the evidence of his misconduct is “overwhelming and uncontested”. Donald Trump impeachment | How does it happen? Mr Schiff said the president’s behaviour was too alarming to wait until the 2020 presidential election. “The argument, ‘why don’t you just wait?’ comes down to this: Why don’t you just let him cheat in just one more election?” Mr Schiff said. In focusing on just two articles of impeachment, the Democrats have chosen to limit their case against the president to very specific actions, rather than including potential allegations brought up in a report on Russian election interference. Mr Trump fiercely defended himself on twitter: Nadler just said that I “pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 Election.” Ridiculous, and he knows that is not true. Both the President & Foreign Minister of Ukraine said, many times, that there “WAS NO PRESSURE.” Nadler and the Dems know this, but refuse to acknowledge!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019 Democrats have moved rapidly in their impeachment inquiry since launching an investigation on September 24 and a full House vote on the charges is expected next week. The chamber, controlled by Democrats, is almost certain to vote to impeach the Republican president, setting the stage for a dramatic trial in the Republican-controlled Senate, likely to begin in January. Mr Trump’s re-election campaign manage, Brad Parscale, released a statement saying: “For months, Nancy Pelosi said she wouldn’t move forward on impeachment because it was too divisive and it needed bipartisan support. Well, it is divisive and only the Democrats are pushing it, but she’s doing it anyway. “Americans don’t agree with this rank partisanship, but Democrats are putting on this political theater because they don’t have a viable candidate for 2020 and they know it.”
