Tag: Trump impeachment inquiry

Five National Polls Show Support For Impeachment

Multiple polls show Americans warming up to the idea of impeaching Trump, following House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s declaration of an official impeachment inquiry in late September. Since Pelosi (D-CA) made the announcement, at least five national polls show a dramatic shift in public sentiment in favor of impeaching Trump.

On Thursday, a USA Today/Ipsos poll showed 45 percent of Americans support a vote by the House to impeach Trump. Only 38 percent oppose such a vote. A poll by the same outfit in June showed overwhelming public sentiment opposing impeachment by a 61 percent – 32 percent margin.

Polls from CNN follow the same pattern. A May poll shows only 41 percent of Americans supporting the impeachment and removal of Trump from office, while 54 percent opposed. Following Pelosi’s announcement, 47 percent supported Trump’s impeachment and removal, while only 45 percent opposed.

View the complete October 3 article by Dan Desai Martin on the National Memo website here.

Trump Rants While Democrats Lay Down the Law

The president’s angry public statements offer a stark contrast to Pelosi and Schiff’s response.

He called his Democratic investigators liars and traitors, deemed his potential 2020 campaign foe and son “stone cold crooked” and said the impeachment inquiry against him was “BULLSHIT.” They said grimly that they would go through the legal process of subpoenaing the White House for documents and noted their obligation to “give the president a chance to exonerate himself.”

He called the press “corrupt” and lambasted a reporter who asked what, if anything, the president wanted a foreign nation to do regarding Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, demanding that the reporter ask a question of the Finnish president instead – and then answered the question posed to the befuddled-looking Finnish leader. They pleaded lightly for questions about free trade and prescription drug costs before agreeing to answer questions about the impeachment probe.

He threatened a “major lawsuit” against those behind special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election – a probe he insists absolves him of wrongdoing. They solemnly warned the president that failure to cooperate with subpoenas would be viewed as obstruction of justice, in itself an impeachable offense.

View the complete October 2 article by Susan Milligan on The U.S. News and World Report website here.

Scoop: Trump letter dares Pelosi to hold vote on impeachment inquiry

Axios logoThe White House is planning to send Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter as soon as Friday arguing that President Trump and his team can ignore lawmakers’ demands until she holds a full House vote formally approving an impeachment inquiry, 2 sources familiar with the letter tell Axios.

Why it matters: By putting in writing the case that Trump and his supporters have been making verbally for days, the White House is preparing for a court fight and arguing to the public that its resistance to Congress’ requests is justified.

  • Trump wants to force House Democrats in vulnerable races to be on the record if they favor pursuing impeachment, these sources tell us.
  • Republicans also say the minority party can exert more influence over hearings and other aspects of an inquiry once it is formalized with a vote.
  • By calling this an inquiry without holding a vote, Pelosi and the Democratic committee chairmen are having it both ways, one official said. “They want to be a little bit pregnant.”

View the complete October 3 article by Alayna Treene and Margaret Talev on the Axios website here.

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman nails why Republicans won’t turn on Trump — and it’s not over fear of the president’s wrath

AlterNet logoIn a series of tweets on Thursday morning, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman mocked Republicans who have painted themselves into a corner with their slavish devotion to Donald Trump and now, in the face of real crimes that could lead to impeachment, refuse to condemn him for fear it will make them look like they have aligned with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the Democrats.

Leading off with, “So all the pundits who warned that Dems were making a terrible mistake are engaged in some serious soul-searching, right? Hahahaha,” the Nobel Prize-winning economist dug into what is holding them back — then coined a term to explain their reluctance.

“Actually, a real puzzle: why are so many center-right anti-Trumpers deeply opposed to holding Trump accountable for abuse of power? You might think they’d be glad to see him fall bc of his personal sins, not his policies,” he wrote before adding, “One answer might be Pelosi derangement syndrome: they may be anti-Trump, but can’t stand admitting that Dems are doing anything right. Strong overlap between never-impeachers and those who insisted Dems were blowing the midterms.”

View the complete October 3 article by Tom Boggioni from Raw Story on the AlterNet website here.

GOP turns furor on media amid impeachment fight

The Hill logoPresident Trump and his allies are embracing a war with the media as part of the growing impeachment fight.

The president, several congressional Republicans and high-profile pundits are turning their fury toward reporters, accusing them of trying to undercut the president and key officials like Attorney General William Barr.

The backlash comes amid a steady stream of reports that are broadening the scope of who within the administration has knowledge of Trump’s actions toward Ukraine that are at the center of House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry.

View the complete October 3 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

Trump’s impeachment defiance spooks key voting blocs

Many voters critical to Trump are breaking from the president on impeachment, posing a risk to his congressional firewall.

President Donald Trump was in trouble with women voters long before House Democrats launched a formal impeachment inquiry against him last week. Since then, his standing has grown only worse.

Nearly a half-dozen polls conducted since last Tuesday, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directed her colleagues to proceed with pursuing Trump for potentially impeachable offenses, have shown women voters rallying behind her decision, exacerbating concerns among White House allies that white women who helped carry Trump to victory in 2016 can no longer be counted on next November.

The development comes as independent voters and college-educated whites — two more demographic groups that could make or break Trump’s reelection bid — have shown signs of softening their resistance to impeachment. Taken together, the latest polls paint an alarming picture for the president, whose base is sticking by him but cannot be counted on by themselves to deliver him a second term.

View the complete October 3 article by Gabby Orr on the Politico website here.

10 times Trump Cabinet officials said something that soon fell apart

 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted Wednesday that he was on that fateful call between President Trump and Ukraine’s president — about a week and a half after playing dumb about the call’s contents in an interview. As The Post’s Philip Bump writes, it’s a great example of a politician saying things that are strictly true while completely misleading the people he’s supposed to serve.

And as far as obfuscations go, it’s got plenty of company in Trump’s Cabinet. Continue reading “10 times Trump Cabinet officials said something that soon fell apart”

Trump involved Pence in efforts to pressure Ukraine’s leader, though officials say vice president was unaware of allegations in whistleblower complaint

Washington Post logoPresident Trump repeatedly involved Vice President Pence in efforts to exert pressure on the leader of Ukraine at a time when the president was using other channels to solicit information that he hoped would be damaging to a Democratic rival, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump instructed Pence not to attend the inauguration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in May — an event White House officials had pushed to put on the vice president’s calendar — when Ukraine’s new leader was seeking recognition and support from Washington, the officials said.

Months later, the president used Pence to tell Zelensky that U.S. aid was still being withheld while demanding more aggressive action on corruption, officials said. At that time — following Trump’s July 25 phone call with Zelenksy — the Ukrainians probably understood action on corruption to include the investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

View the complete October 2 article by Greg Miller, Greg Jaffe and Ashley Parker on The Washington Post website here.

Trump rides a roller coaster of grievances, victimhood and braggadocio as Finland’s leader looks on

Washington Post logoThe Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter’s insights

The rowdy, meandering and combative news conference Wednesday began with President Trump marveling at the media.

“Look at all the press that you attract,” he told Finnish President Sauli Niinisto as the two men faced a room of reporters. “Do you believe this? Very impressive.”

It ended with Trump excoriating the press as “corrupt people” who undermine U.S. democracy.

View the complete October 2 article by Toluse Olorunnipa on The Washington Post website here.