BFF-12 Key Democrat says impeachment needed to stop ‘a crime in progress’

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BFF-12

US-POLITICS-IMPEACHMENT

Key Democrat says impeachment needed to stop ‘a crime in progress’

WASHINGTON, Dec 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A key Democratic lawmaker said Sunday
that President Donald Trump’s misconduct amounted to “a crime in progress”
that threatens US democracy, as the full House prepares for a historic vote
on impeachment.

“Do we have a constitutional democracy, or do we have a monarchy, where the
president is unaccountable?” Representative Jerry Nadler asked on ABC’s “This
Week.”

“That’s what’s at stake here.”

He expressed anger with Senate Republicans who said they had already made
up their mind to exonerate the president — even without hearing evidence or
testimony — in the Senate trial expected next month.

When the Democratic-controlled House convenes Wednesday to weigh the two
charges approved by Nadler’s Judiciary Committee, Trump is expected to become
only the third US president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and
Bill Clinton in 1998.

Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 just before a House impeachment vote.
Neither Johnson nor Clinton was convicted in the Senate.

Trump is counting on the Republican majority in the Senate to exonerate
him.

In repeated tweets Sunday he mocked a process that, to judge by his
frequent tweets, appears to consume him.

He retweeted one conservative commentator as saying: “The President did
nothing wrong here. There is no crime,” before adding: “Impeachment Hoax!”

– ‘Total coordination’ –

Some influential Senate Republicans have suggested they have already made
up their minds and don’t need to hear the evidence compiled by House
Democrats in several weeks of hearings.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has promised “total coordination”
with the White House and said there is no chance Trump will be convicted.

And Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant, told CNN, “I’m
not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here,” dismissing the charges
against Trump as “partisan nonsense.” House impeachment manager Democrat Adam
Schiff, appearing on ABC alongside Nadler, called Graham’s attitude
“disgraceful.”

And Nadler said McConnell and Graham would be defying the oath required of
all senators in an impeachment trial: “to do impartial justice.”

– ‘A subversion’ –

But Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, said Sunday that Democrats had come up
with “zero evidence” of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” the US
Constitution sets as the standard for impeachment.

“I think this is the beginning of the end for this show trial that we’ve
seen in the House,” he told ABC’s “This Week.”

Nadler, however, painted a dire picture of what is at stake.

“This president conspired — sought foreign interference in the 2016
election,” he said, referring to Russian meddling. “He is openly seeking
foreign interference in the 2020 election” by asking Ukraine to investigate
Trump’s Democratic rivals.

“We cannot permit that to continue,” he said, adding that to allow such
behavior would be “a subversion of the constitutional order.”

Sunday evening, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a letter to
McConnell, putting forward the structure for a Senate impeachment trial that
would begin the week of January 6.

Schumer also proposed issuing subpoenas for several senior White House
officials, including acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former national
security advisor John Bolton.

“Conducting the trial according to this plan will… allow the public to
have confidence in the process and will demonstrate that the Senate can put
aside partisan concerns and fulfill its constitutional duty,” Schumer wrote.

One of the two impeachment articles to go before the House charges Trump
with abuse of power for conditioning military aid and a White House meeting
on Ukraine’s launching investigations into Democrats ahead of the 2020
presidential election.

The other charges him with obstructing Congress for refusing to cooperate
with the inquiry and ordering other officials not to appear, a development
Democrats say is unprecedented in American history.

The impeachment hearings have been a sometimes grim exercise for Democrats,
who fear moderate members of the party from Trump-friendly districts could
lose their seats next year if they vote to impeach.

One Democrat, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who has been a vocal opponent of
impeachment, is expected to switch allegiance to the Republican Party in
coming days. He reportedly held a long meeting with Trump on Friday.

BSS/AFP/FI/ 1012 hrs