Trump news - live:‘Can you believe this?’ President rages at ‘garbage’ Democrat impeachment investigation
Nancy Pelosi announces that Democrats are starting proceedings to try to force Donald Trump from office
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After having the threat hanging over him for what has felt like almost the whole of his presidency, Donald Trump now finally faces a formal impeachment investigation.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, announced that she was beginning the inquiry in response to allegations that the president was trying to recruit a foreign head of state to fabricate dirt on Joe Biden, the frontrunner to face Mr Trump in next year’s election.
In a statement she said: “The actions of the Trump presidency have revealed the dishonourable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections.”
It was a dramatic change of tack by Ms Pelosi, who has opposed efforts by her party colleagues to impeach the president.
But the controversy over Mr Trump’s mysterious July phone call to Volodymyr Zelensky, the efforts to keep a whistleblower’s complaint from Congress, and the suspicion that the president was trying to subvert American democracy - perhaps for a second time - served to change her mind.
The president himself punched back in characteristic fashion, unleashing a broadside of tweets that were by turn angry, insulting and boastful.
He reverted to some of his favourite catchphrases - “witch hunt”, “presidential harassment”; implied that efforts to hold him to account were tantamount to an attack on America - “so bad for our country”; and tweeted a re-election campaign video that featured him claiming that impeachment would help his poll numbers.
The impeachment process itself is likely to pass the lower chamber of Congress, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, where it needs a simple majority. But the Republican-controlled Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required for a conviction, looks virtually unattainable.
The Democrats will therefore hope that their dramatic gamble, 14 months before the presidential elections, pays off.
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The former vice president stopped just short of calling for formal proceedings to remove Donald Trump to immediately begin, calling on the White House to stop stonewalling numerous investigations into the president.
If not, Mr Biden said Congress would be left with "no choice" but to pursue impeachment.
"If we allow a president to get away with shredding the United States Constitution, that will last forever," Joe Biden said in his statement on Donald Trump.
"It is time for this administration to stop stonewalling and provide the Congress with all the facts that they need, including a copy of the formal complaint made by the whistleblower," he added.
Here's video of Joe Biden delivering his rebuke of Donald Trump's latest scandal -
One of Donald Trump's cabinet members appeared to fall asleep during his speech to the United Nations.
As Mr Trump railed against Iran and globalists, commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, 81, was seen with his eyes shut. Many on social media claimed he had fallen fast asleep.
It's not immediately clear if this statement from Nancy Pelosi is in relation to what she will say in about an hour's time, but the House Speaker has announced a resolution surrounding the Ukrainian scandal to be voted on tomorrow:
Nancy Pelosi is meeting Democratic colleagues behind closed doors ahead of a statement expected at 5pm US time (10pm in Britain). She has apparently told them that she is ready to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president. Politico reporter Heather Caygle reports that Ms Pelosi said that Mr Trump had betrayed his office by asking a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
Adam Schiff, Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, reportedly spoke after Ms Pelosi at the same behind-closed-doors session, telling party colleagues that Mr Trump wasn't asking Ukraine to dig up dirt on 2020 rival Joe Biden but to "manufacture dirt" on him.
Meanwhile, it looks as if the whistleblower's complaint about Mr Trump's call to the Ukrainian president will now be released to Congress. The complaint - apparently made by an intelligence officer - alleged that the president had made an inappropriate "promise" to a foreign leader, believed to be Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
It would normally have been passed on to Congress but it had been stalled by the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire - apparently under political pressure.
However, Republicans in the Senate have now agreed with Democrats to release the complaint to the intelligence committee.
Senior Democrats are tweeting in anticipation of Ms Pelosi's announcement which is imminent. This is from Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House committee on oversight and reform:
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