It’s treason, tweets Trump
US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has warned that the Democrat-driven impeachment proceedings and any move to oust him from office amounted to “treason” and would spark a civil war, prompting outrage from a Republican congressman.
Trump tweeted a conservative pastor’s comment that removing him would provoke a “civil war-like fracture” in America.
Republican Adam Kinzinger, a former Air Force pilot, tweeted on Sunday: “I have visited nations ravaged by civil war. I have never imagined such a quote to be repeated by a president. This is beyond repugnant.”
Trump yesterday was thundering through a new round of counter-punches against his opponents by hammering home the suggestion that they should be arrested and charged with treason, and could launch a civil war. His top foes were the whistle-blower whose complaint launched the House’s impeachment investigation, and the congressman leading it, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.
“Arrest for Treason?” Trump tweeted of Schiff yesterday in one of many presidential suggestions that his opponents should be investigated despite operating under their constitutional duties and within the law.
Fact check: treason is extremely narrowly defined, both in the nation’s founding document and in federal law.
The constitution states: “Treason against the US shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Note the word “only”. Treason occurs when a US citizen, or a non-citizen on US territory, wages war against the country or provides material support, not just sympathy, to a declared enemy of the US.
That came after Trump tweeted a comment from the Reverend Robert Jeffress.
“If the Democrats are successful in removing the president, it will cause a civil war-like fracture in this nation from which our country will never heal,” Jeffress said on Sunday.