Misgivings amid Thanksgiving
Impeachment trial casts dark cloud over White house break
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump branded his political enemies “wolves” ahead of a campaign rally and Thanksgiving break at his Florida home already being spoiled by the threat of impeachment.
With the Judiciary Committee in the House of Representatives announcing that the next phase of impeachment will open Dec 4, there is little chance of Trump escaping political storm clouds as he spends the rest of the week in Florida.
The Democratic chairman of the committee, Jerry Nadler, announced the new phase – which could lead to articles of impeachment – with an invitation for Trump to attend.
“The committee looks forward to your participation,” Nadler said.
But Trump began his day on Tuesday by lashing out on Twitter at “the DC Wolves and Fake News Media”.
Trump would go on to hold a raucous rally later that day in Sunrise, Florida, reconnecting to his rightwing voter base.
The state is a key piece in the electoral puzzle for the 2020 presidential election and recently became Trump’s legal home, after he announced he was switching residence from his native New York.
Trump used the rally with his red-hatted supporters to emphasise his grip on the Republican party and his readiness for what will likely be the most polarised and bitter presidential election in generations.
He will then retreat to his Mar-aLago golf resort on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
But the relaxed setting is unlikely to soothe a president increasingly frustrated and angered by what he calls a Democratic “witch hunt”.
Impeachment even made its way into the quirky annual ritual of a presidential pardon for two enormous turkeys at the White House.
“They’ve already received subpoenas to appear in Adam Schiff’s basement,” Trump joked to guests in the Rose Garden, referring to the head of the intelligence committee leading the impeachment probe in the House of Representatives.
Trump also managed to get in a dig at the media, which he berates almost daily as fake, saying journalists would like Tuesday’s story because “turkeys are closely related to vultures”.
Forecasts are for balmy temperatures all week at Trump’s golf course and official private residence in Mar-a-Lago.
Back in chilly Washington, Democrats plan to keep working through the Thanksgiving break on what looks like a fast track to making Trump only the third president ever to be impeached.
Once the Judiciary Committee produces articles of impeachment, the full House, dominated by Democrats, can vote to impeach.
Trump is accused of abusing his office by pushing Ukraine to announce a politically damaging probe into one of his main 2020 rivals, Joe Biden.
Although the Republican-led Senate will almost certainly acquit him, this is not the way that Trump, who often boasts of being among the most successful US presidents, wants to go down in history.
There was more pressure on the administration late Monday when a Washington appeals court ruled that White House aides cannot continue to dodge subpoenas for testifying before the Democratic-led impeachment panel.