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Thursday 12 December 2019 16:37
Donald Trump is attacking teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg after she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year ahead of him, as the House Judiciary Committee prepares to resume its debate over the articles of impeachment threatening to end his presidency.
“So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” wrote the Leader of the Free World on Twitter.com.
The president is meanwhile under fire for hosting notoriously antisemitic Texan pastor Robert Jeffress at his White House Hanukkah party, a man who once claimed Jews would go to hell and that Mr Trump’s impeachment would cause a “Civil War-like fracture” in American society.
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Republican Greg Steube also suggests there is a “standard of criminality” for impeachment proceedings against a president. That is, of course, not the case in the United States. The US Constitution says a president can in fact be removed from office for “high crimes and misdemeanours”.
He also suggests that impeaching Donald Trump over an abuse of power is wrong since it has never happened before in US history. However, there have only been three other impeachments, so that argument appears somewhat thin.
Republican Doug Collins says the “tragedy” of the impeachment is that Democrats can’t convince the public that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky felt pressured to announce investigations for Donald Trump.
This moment from Democrat Pramila Jayapal is gaining a lot of attention online:
Donald Trump is live-tweeting the impeachment hearing, attacking Democrats as “the Radical Left” and “Do Nothing Democrats” –
Republican Kelly Armstrong begins his statement by seemingly attacking key impeachment witness David Holmes for “having a 40 minute opening” statement during the public impeachment proceedings.
He is now going on to explain why he supports the motion to remove the abuse of power impeachment article against the president.
“Come on! Get real! Be serious!” Democrat Jamie Raskin shouts at Republicans while laying out evidence to support the impeachment articles against Donald Trump. “Enough of these phony process objections!”
Democrat Val Demings has tweeted out a line from the statement she just read at today’s impeachment hearing shooting down the Republican defence of the president:
Republican Andy Biggs is now defending the president and speaking out against the articles of impeachment against Donald Trump, saying “the facts are contested” and claiming the key impeachment witnesses who heard his phone call with Ukraine were “conflicting”. However, the witnesses who heard the call described concerns they had with the president’s demands.
Looks like Donald Trump is watching the impeachment proceedings against him, as the president sends out a tweet in real-time attacking the Democrats:
reportedly aware of the hold as early as July.
Republican Ken Buck is now sparring with Democrat Eric Swalwell after he said the president’s actions “overlap” with criminal acts.
Democrat Pramila Jayapal again asks: “Is it ever okay for a president to condition official action on personal gain?”
Democrat Pramila Jayapal is asking her Republican colleagues whether any of them are willing to say that it’s wrong for a president to request help from a foreign government in a US election.
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz is now lashing out against Democrats and saying there is “no evidence” and “no witnesses” in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.
Some analysis from The Independent’s Andrew Feinberg as he watches the hearings from within the room where the markups are being made:
As Rep. Louie Gohmert complains that Judiciary Committee members weren’t allowed to watch witnesses testify (which is ridiculous because he was present for several of the public HPSCI hearings) “unlike in Watergate,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who worked on the Watergate investigation as a House staffer, shakes her head.
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries is mapping out exactly when the aid was released by the White House to Ukraine, saying “the president was caught red-handed” after a whistleblower complaint detailed concerns about his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Republican Louie Gohmert supports removing the abuse of power impeachment article against Donald Trump, suggesting the charges against the president must actually be related to criminal acts. That is not the bar the founding fathers set for impeaching a president in drafting the US Constitution.
“If it’s lying about sex we could put Stormy Daniels’ case before us”, Democrat Zoe Lofgren noted after Eric Swalwell spoke. “It’s not an abuse of power.”
It should be noted that California Democrat Eric Swalwell is a former prosecutor. He expertly lays out “at least two criminal statutory crimes” and says he may “one day” face charges for those crimes.
Democrat Eric Swalwell is now speaking, looking directly into the cameras and saying the president’s “conduct overlaps with criminal acts”.
He goes on to discuss Donald Trump’s demands for political investigations, referring to anti-bribery laws and explaining how those can be broadly used in some political cases.
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