U.S. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she is arranging for articles of impeachment against U.S. Republican President Donald Trump, but Republicans said they’re charged, unified — and ready for a fight.
Various GOP officials did not hesitate to speak out Thursday.
“We are less than a year away from Election Day 2020 and Democrats can’t possibly explain to the American people why they want to take the decision of who should be president out of the hands of voters,” said Trump Campaign Manager Brad Parscale, in an emailed statement.
“But impeaching the President has always been their goal, so they should just get on with it so we can have a fair trial in the Senate and expose The Swamp for what it is. Speaker Pelosi, Chairman Schiff, and Hunter Biden should testify, and then we can get back to the business of our country.”
According to Politico, Democrats want multiple articles of impeachment, including abuse of power, obstruction of justice and obstruction of Congress.
Republican National Committee Rapid Response Director Steve Guest said in an emailed statement that Pelosi “just walked the Democrats off the plank.”
“She has put Republicans in the strongest possible position to take back the House in 2020. Pelosi solidified that the Democrats have turned their back on the American people. Since President Trump was elected, Democrats have been solely consumed with their political vendetta and today’s announcement cemented that,” Guest said.
“Yet, even before Pelosi spoke, Democrats were already moving impeachment goal posts. If the Democrats had such an ironclad case with Ukraine, Steny Hoyer would not have spent the morning on CNN bringing up the bogus Russia smear of which President Trump was completely vindicated. So much for Nancy Pelosi saying in September that impeachment should be ‘narrowly’ focused on Ukraine.'”
In an emailed statement from the White House, press secretary Stephanie Grisham blasted Democrats and Speaker Pelosi in particular for ignoring “the needs of the American people and advance her selfish political desires.”
Grisham added:
Democrats’ sham impeachment is a blatant, purely partisan attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election. By their own admission, Democrats say they have to ‘impeach the President’ because they cannot defeat him at the ballot box.
Democrats in Congress have clearly abused their power.
Democrats in Congress have lied to the American people.
Democrats in Congress have made a mockery of the law.How many Democrats will join her driving right off the cliff with this illegitimate impeachment hoax? Speaker Pelosi’s instruction to advance this impeachment process – one that has violated every precedent – moves this Country toward the most partisan and illegitimate subversion of the Constitution in our history.
Other GOP legislators were quick to reprimand Pelosi and her Democratic colleagues, including U.S. Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
“Our founding fathers warned of hyperpartisan people like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, who are exploiting a constitutional check to undo the results of the 2016 election,” Blackburn said on her Twitter page Thursday.
On his Facebook page Thursday, U.S. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said “three liberal law professors testifying they believe President Trump did something wrong has not dramatically shifted public opinion in favor of impeachment.”
“Liberal law professors wanted to impeach Trump on Inauguration Day,” Graham wrote.
“The American people are smart enough to see through this sham.”
As recent polling has shown, according to Guest, the American people are rejecting what he called “the Democrats’ impeachment witch hunt.”
“Pelosi’s action today shows America that Democrats want to negate the votes of 63 million Americans all while denying President Trump due process,” Guest wrote.
“Her action today is the ultimate abuse of power.”
On his Twitter page, President Trump said the GOP will win this battle — but he did warn that Pelosi’s actions will set an unfortunate historical precedent.
“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,” Trump wrote.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Nancy Pelosi” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
