Trump: I’d love to sit in on impeachment trial
President watches from Air Force One as proceedings open with attack on the ‘man who would be king’
DONALD TRUMP was accused of abusing his office by launching a corrupt scheme to “cheat” in the 2020 US election, as Democrats opened their case in his impeachment trial.
In a hushed Senate chamber, prosecutors said the president was “a man who would be king”, believed he was “above the law”, and must be removed from office.
Mr Trump watched the historic moment on Air Force One, as he returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He lambasted the Democrats as “major sleazebags” and threatened to turn up at the trial.
The president told reporters: “I’d love to go, wouldn’t that be great? Sit right in the front row and stare at their corrupt faces. I’d love to do it.”
In only the third impeachment trial in American history, with the 100 US senators sitting as a jury, the Democrat case was opened by congressman Adam Schiff.
Mr Schiff read out a letter sent by Alexander Hamilton, an American statesman, to President George Washington in 1792. It warned that the young nation could one day end up with an “unprincipled” president who may attempt to “mount the hobby horse of popularity” and “ride the storm”.
Mr Schiff said: “We take this solemn action because Donald J Trump ... has acted precisely as Hamilton and his contemporaries feared.
“They put impeachment in the Constitution for a reason, a remedy as powerful as the evil it was meant to combat.”
Mr Schiff outlined the alleged “corrupt scheme” Mr Trump launched to pressure Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, to publicly announce an investigation into Joe Biden, Mr Trump’s Democrat rival. That involved withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and offering an Oval Office meeting for Mr Zelenskiy, Mr Schiff alleged.
When an investigation into his conduct began, the president refused to let his underlings cooperate, orchestrating “one of the most blatant efforts at a cover-up in history”, he said. Mr Schiff said the president had “betrayed his oath of office” and “failed to put his duty to the country before himself ”.
Mr Trump faces two articles of impeachment – abuse of power, and obstructing Congress. He has called the trial a “hoax”.
On Tuesday night, senators, some in their eighties, sat until 2am as they finalised rules for the trial.
There are 53 Republican senators, and 47 Democrats. Republicans rejected nearly a dozen Democrat motions to allow witnesses and demand White House records. Chuck Schumer, the Democrat leader in the Senate, said the trial was beginning under a “cloud of unfairness”. The question of whether witnesses will be called may be readdressed later in the trial.
Mr Trump said he was open to the prospect of calling witnesses including John Bolton, his former national security adviser, Mick Mulvaney, his acting chief of staff, and Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state.
The president said: “I can live either way. I would rather go the long way.
“I would rather interview Bolton. I would rather interview a lot of people.
“The problem with John is, it’s a national security issue. John, he knows some of my thoughts. He knows what I think about leaders. What happens if he reveals what I think about a certain leader and it’s not very positive?”