Congress must remove Trump, say Democrats United States
Closing out their case, House Democrats warned yesterday in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial that the US president would persist in abusing his power and endangering American democracy unless Congress intervened to remove him before this year’s election.
‘‘He is who he is,’’ said Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Schiff told the senators acting as jurors that Trump put the USUkraine relationship on the line in a way that benefited Russia just so he could take a political ‘‘cheap shot’’ at his Democratic foe Joe Biden.
‘‘You cannot leave a man like that in office,’’ Schiff said. ‘‘You know it’s not going to stop . . . It’s not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it.’’
Trump is being tried in the Senate after the House impeached him last month, accusing him of abusing his office by asking Ukraine for politically motivated probes of Biden and other matters while withholding military aid from a US ally that was at war with Russia. A second article of impeachment accuses him of obstructing Congress by refusing to turn over documents or allow officials to testify in the House ensuing probe.
As Democrats finished their third day before sceptical Republican senators, Trump’s legal team prepared to start his defence, expected tomorrow.
Republicans are defending Trump’s actions as appropriate, and are calling the impeachment trial a politically motivated effort to weaken him in his re-election campaign. Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and eventual acquittal is considered likely.
Before that, senators will make a critical decision next week on Democratic demands to hear testimony from top Trump aides, including acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton, who refused to appear
before the House.
With Chief Justice John Roberts presiding, yesterday’s session opened with a sweeping and impassioned argument from Democrats that Trump’s actions with Ukraine were not unique but part of a pattern of ‘‘destructive
behaviour’’ now threatening the core foundations of American democracy.
Schiff said Trump had shown repeatedly that he was willing to put his personal political interests above those of the country he had sworn to protect.
He made his arguments emphatically personal. ‘‘The next time, it just may be you,’’ he said, pointing at one senator after another. ‘‘Do you think for a moment that if he felt it was in his interest, he wouldn’t ask you to be investigated?’’