President Trump: Tells The Lying Phony Fake News Media Is Now Call The Corrupt News Media
President Trump: Tells The Lying Phony Fake News Media Is Now Call The Corrupt News Media
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House Passes Impeachment Resolution on Stark Partisan Lines
Move marks first significant vote since probe began into Trump’s call for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden
WASHINGTON—The House passed a resolution almost entirely along
party lines to initiate the public phase of an inquiry into President
Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, setting a blueprint for the fourth
presidential impeachment investigation in U.S. history.
The 232-196 vote underscored the sharp partisan divide in
Washington over impeachment. All Democrats but two supported the measure
while all Republicans rejected it. The House’s one independent,
Rep. Justin Amash
of Michigan, voted yes.
Though the move will make the investigation more public, including the likelihood of televised hearings, no time frame was given for when that will happen. The resolution authorizes the House Intelligence Committee to release transcripts from past closed-door interviews with witnesses and gives more power to Republicans, including the right to call their own witnesses, though those requests are subject to approval by Democrats.
“If we don’t have a system of checks and balances, we might as well all just elect a president and go home,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said ahead of the vote. She waved away GOP complaints, saying: “These rules are fairer than anything that has gone before in terms of an impeachment proceeding.”
The two Democrats who opposed the measure were Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who both represent districts Mr. Trump won in 2016.
GOP lawmakers have kept a united front in objecting to the impeachment process, even as some have criticized Mr. Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine to launch investigations related to the 2016 U.S. election and Democratic rival Joe Biden. None have said they believe Mr. Trump has committed an impeachable offense.
After the vote, House Republicans’ campaign arm sent moving
boxes to about 20 vulnerable Democrats’ offices, which caused Capitol
Police concern. Republicans signaled they plan to make impeachment a
line of attack in next year’s congressional elections.
“The new socialist democrats…they will be voting away their majority,” said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, chairman of the Republican campaign arm.
Democrats, meantime, are buoyed by polling that shows growing support for impeachment. In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 55% of participants said Congress should take up the Ukraine matter, with 31% supporting the House impeachment inquiry and 24% saying enough evidence exists already for lawmakers to remove Mr. Trump from office.
Democrats in competitive districts framed the vote Thursday as moving the investigation into the public sphere.
“I don’t care if you are a Democrat or a Republican, why do you not want to get to the truth,” said Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The Intelligence Committee is expected to refer its findings to the House Judiciary Committee.
The resolution passed Thursday will allow Mr. Trump and his counsel to attend all Judiciary Committee hearings, cross-examine witnesses and make closing presentations. Republicans and the White House criticized the resolution because it doesn’t give the president these rights while the investigation is run by the Intelligence Committee, as it currently is. Democrats argue this is because the probe remains in its information-gathering stage.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham slammed Democrats after the vote, accusing them of engaging in a “a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the president.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said voters “will punish Democrats who support this farce and President Trump will be easily re-elected.”
In the private depositions the House has conducted, Republicans and Democrats on the three committees of jurisdiction have had equal time to question witnesses, but lawmakers not on the panels have been excluded.
Conducting witness interviews behind closed doors has been common in high-profile investigations run by Republicans and Democrats. While not impeachment inquiries, under GOP leadership the Senate and House intelligence committees conducted separate reviews of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, largely interviewing witnesses in private. The GOP-run House also conducted an inquiry into the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, largely behind closed doors.
Though the move will make the investigation more public, including the likelihood of televised hearings, no time frame was given for when that will happen. The resolution authorizes the House Intelligence Committee to release transcripts from past closed-door interviews with witnesses and gives more power to Republicans, including the right to call their own witnesses, though those requests are subject to approval by Democrats.
“If we don’t have a system of checks and balances, we might as well all just elect a president and go home,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) said ahead of the vote. She waved away GOP complaints, saying: “These rules are fairer than anything that has gone before in terms of an impeachment proceeding.”
The two Democrats who opposed the measure were Reps. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey and Collin Peterson of Minnesota, who both represent districts Mr. Trump won in 2016.
GOP lawmakers have kept a united front in objecting to the impeachment process, even as some have criticized Mr. Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine to launch investigations related to the 2016 U.S. election and Democratic rival Joe Biden. None have said they believe Mr. Trump has committed an impeachable offense.
“The new socialist democrats…they will be voting away their majority,” said Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, chairman of the Republican campaign arm.
Democrats, meantime, are buoyed by polling that shows growing support for impeachment. In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 55% of participants said Congress should take up the Ukraine matter, with 31% supporting the House impeachment inquiry and 24% saying enough evidence exists already for lawmakers to remove Mr. Trump from office.
Democrats in competitive districts framed the vote Thursday as moving the investigation into the public sphere.
“I don’t care if you are a Democrat or a Republican, why do you not want to get to the truth,” said Rep. Cheri Bustos of Illinois, chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The Intelligence Committee is expected to refer its findings to the House Judiciary Committee.
The resolution passed Thursday will allow Mr. Trump and his counsel to attend all Judiciary Committee hearings, cross-examine witnesses and make closing presentations. Republicans and the White House criticized the resolution because it doesn’t give the president these rights while the investigation is run by the Intelligence Committee, as it currently is. Democrats argue this is because the probe remains in its information-gathering stage.
White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham slammed Democrats after the vote, accusing them of engaging in a “a blatantly partisan attempt to destroy the president.”
Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, said voters “will punish Democrats who support this farce and President Trump will be easily re-elected.”
In the private depositions the House has conducted, Republicans and Democrats on the three committees of jurisdiction have had equal time to question witnesses, but lawmakers not on the panels have been excluded.
Conducting witness interviews behind closed doors has been common in high-profile investigations run by Republicans and Democrats. While not impeachment inquiries, under GOP leadership the Senate and House intelligence committees conducted separate reviews of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, largely interviewing witnesses in private. The GOP-run House also conducted an inquiry into the 2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya, largely behind closed doors.
Up Next
The Ukraine Witnesses
- Oct. 3: Kurt Volker, former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, testifies and hands over text messages with other State Department officials that showed officials attempting to use a potential meeting between Mr. Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart as leverage to press Kyiv to investigate Joe Biden.
- Oct. 11: Marie Yovanovitch, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, testifies that Mr. Trump sought for over a year to remove her and that his allies, including Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer, targeted her in a “concerted campaign.”
- Oct. 14: Fiona Hill, President Trump’s former top Russia adviser, testifies that she and other White House officials grew so alarmed by the administration’s efforts to push Ukraine to open certain investigations that they raised objections with a White House lawyer.
- Oct. 15: George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state, testifies that he had grown concerned that he had been sidelined from Ukraine diplomacy and that he raised concerns in 2015 about Joe Biden’s son serving on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
- Oct. 16: Michael McKinley, former top aide to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, testifies that he left his post over frustration with Mr. Pompeo regarding the treatment of Ms. Yovanovitch.
- Oct. 17: Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, criticizes President Trump over his efforts to enlist Ukraine in investigating a political rival and says he and other U.S. officials were “disappointed” by the president’s directive to work with Mr. Giuliani on Ukraine matters.[Statement]
- Oct. 22: William Taylor, chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, testifies that President Trump made nearly $400 million in aid to Ukraine contingent on the Ukrainian president investigating two matters related to U.S. politics. [Statement]
- Oct. 23: Laura Cooper, Defense Department official overseeing Ukraine, is the first Pentagon official to testify before investigators.
- Oct. 26: Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of European and Eurasian affairs, says top officials stymied a show of solidarity for Ms. Yovanovitch.
- Oct. 29: Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the director of European affairs at the National Security Council, says he had concerns about Mr. Trump’s July 25 call with Ukraine, notably the request to investigate the Bidens. [Statement]
- Oct. 30: Catherine Croft, who served at State as special adviser for Ukraine, says Mr. Trump repeatedly described Ukraine as corrupt while deciding whether to provide the country with Javelin missile systems. [Statement] Christopher Anderson, who was a special adviser to Mr. Volker, the former U.S. envoy for Ukraine negotiations, says Mr. Bolton warned U.S. diplomats in June that Rudy Giuliani could pose an obstacle to improving relations with Ukraine. [Statement]
- Oct. 31: Tim Morrison, the National Security Council’s Russia and Europe director.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.) said he didn’t know how much time his committee would need to do its own work, but he said Mr. Trump was entitled to more rights once the impeachment proceedings shifted to his committee.
“It’s not the initial, fact-finding stage, and it’s proper that the president have more recourse at that point,” he said.
Mr. Schiff has said the lack of White House cooperation will be considered obstruction and additional evidence “of the wrongfulness of the president’s underlying misconduct.” Refusal by officials to comply with subpoenas could be included in the articles of impeachment, as it was for President Richard Nixon.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you expect that the more public phase of the House inquiry will persuade lawmakers in either party to change their positions on whether President Trump should be impeached? Join the conversation below.The Patriot Conservative News Tea Party Network
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