Trump complains about impeachment hearing
Trump says Republicans are united in opposing impeachment and the inquiry is backfiring on Democrats, adding ‘I think it is going to be a tremendous boost for the Republicans’
President Donald Trump is complaining the House Judiciary Committee will hold an impeachment inquiry hearing while he attends a NATO summit that comes at a critical moment for the 70-year-old military alliance.
Speaking to reporters at the White House before departing Monday, Trump says the NATO trip is “one of the most important journeys we make as president” and the summit date was established a year ago.
He says Republicans are united in opposing impeachment and the inquiry is backfiring on Democrats, adding “I think it is going to be a tremendous boost for the Republicans.”
With the impeachment inquiry hovering over the trip, Trump says he will continue to pressure European allies to step up their defense spending, saying “it has not been a fair situation for us.”
Trump faced two deadlines in Congress on Sunday as Democrats prepared to shift the focus of their impeachment inquiry from factfinding to the consideration of possible charges of misconduct over his dealings with Ukraine.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, tasked with considering charges known as articles of impeachment, has given the president until 6 p.m. EST (2300 GMT) on Sunday to say whether he or his legal counsel will participate in an impeachment hearing on Wednesday.
The hearing, the first in a series of proceedings expected before the committee, will hear testimony on the impeachment process established under the U.S. Constitution from a panel of legal experts that has yet to be named.
Hearings before the committee, which has responsibility for crafting any formal charges against Trump, are a major step toward possible charges. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who will make the final decision, has not said yet whether the Republican president should be formally impeached. But in a letter to supporters last week, she called for him to be held accountable for his actions.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and called the impeachment inquiry a witch hunt aimed at unseating a democratically elected president. The White House has not yet indicated whether it will take part in the House Judiciary proceedings.
Despite pleas to set aside bickering over military spending so the issue doesn’t dominate a third NATO summit in a row, the United States is almost certain to demand again this week that its 28 NATO partners respect their pledges to boost defense budgets.
NATO countries slashed spending as tensions eased after the Cold War. But Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula was a wake-up call. The allies agreed then to halt cuts, boost budgets and move toward spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense by 2024.
The 2% figure is perhaps too simplistic in that its value fluctuates depending on how economies perform. Moreover, countries calculate their defense budgets differently; some want veterans pensions included, for example.
Correct spending levels don’t guarantee that adequate forces can be deployed into battle in a timely way and sustained by efficient supply lines. Nor do they have a relationship to any real security threat assessment.
Importantly, this is about national military budgets, not NATO funding. No one owes the United States money, even though Washington spends more on defense than all the other allies combined.
That said, European allies and Canada rely heavily on U.S. equipment like large military transport planes and air-to-air refueling, and NATO’S deterrent effect is more credible backed by the United States.
Nine countries are projected to meet the 2% benchmark this year - the U.S. with about 3.4%, Greece, Britain, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania - up from three nations in 2014. Germany will spend 1.35%, ranking it 17th, but it aims to hit 1.5% by the deadline. Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg spend less than 1%.
While budgets have risen since 2014, NATO headquarters chooses to use 2016 - the year Donald Trump was elected U.S. president- as its reference point for spending increases. Officials concede privately that this is to mollify Trump.