Trump compares impeachment probe to ‘lynching’
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump injected racial overtones into the House impeachment inquiry on Tuesday by comparing the Democraticled investigation into his handling of US policy toward Ukraine to a “lynching.” The highestranking African American in Congress warned Trump about making the comparison.
Lynchings, or hangings, historically were mostly used by whites against black men, mostly in the South, beginning in the late 19th century amid rising racial tensions in the US, by comparing his possible impeachment to a lynching, Trump is also likening Democrats to a lynch mob.
Under pressure over impeachment, blowback over his Syria policy and other issues, the Republican president tweeted, “So someday, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. “All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching. But we will WIN!”
House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., criticised Trump’s word choices. “That is one word no president ought to apply to himself,” Clyburn said after the President’s tweet was read to him. “That is a word that we ought to be very, very careful about using.”
Trump insists he did nothing wrong. He has characterised the conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as “perfect” and argues that sore-loser Democrats are still trying to overturn the 2016 election that put him in the White House and keep him from winning a second term next year.