Trump gloats after ‘witch hunt’
IMPEACHMENT: ACQUITTAL AWAITS US PRESIDENT
Currently has a 44.6% approval rating in collated polls.
Republicans prepared to defend their expected acquittal of President Donald Trump, on yesterday’s TV talk shows after their Senate vote to reject witness testimony at his impeachment trial sparked criticism they were aiding a cover-up and abdicating their duties.
Criticism only intensified on Saturday after US media reported that US officials cited presidential privilege in redacting 24 e-mails related to Trump’s hold on military assistance to Ukraine – an issue at the heart of his impeachment trial for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
Trump on Saturday claimed his polling numbers were up after the Senate paved the way for his acquittal next Wednesday.
However, according to the
RealClearPolitics website, Trump currently has a 44.6% approval rating in collated polls, almost exactly the same as when he came to office in January 2017.
His assertion, made on Twitter, came with Washington also awaiting the results of today’s all-important Iowa caucuses.
The first vote in the US primary process will be closely watched as a sign as to which of 11 Democratic candidates are gaining early momentum to challenge Trump in November’s election.
As Democratic contenders raced across the Midwest state, the Senate on Friday rebuffed Democratic calls for witnesses at only the third impeachment trial of a US president.
Trump is all but assured of being acquitted by the Senate, where Republicans hold 53 seats to 47 for the Democrats.
A two-thirds majority, or 67 senators, is needed to remove a president from office.
“Trump poll numbers are the highest since election, despite constant phony Witch Hunts!” the president tweeted on Saturday
from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
He was impeached for abuse of power over pressure on Ukraine to open investigations including into a leading Democratic challenger, Joe Biden.
On Friday, just two Republican senators – Mitt Romney of Utah and Susan Collins of Maine – joined Democrats in voting to introduce witnesses into the impeachment trial.
Democrats argued that every other impeachment trial of US officials has called witnesses.
But they failed to muster the four Republican votes needed to allow testimony from Trump’s former national security advisor John Bolton, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and others.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called it a “grand tragedy.”
“America will remember this day – a day when the United States Senate did not live up to its responsibilities, turned away from truth and instead went along with a sham trial,” Schumer said.
– AFP