Trump news : President attacks Congress members as they prepare for impeachment vote, after mocking teen activist Greta Thunberg
House of Representatives prepares to vote to remove Trump from office next week
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump is set to face impeachment in the House of Representatives, becoming the fourth president in US history to face removal from office on charges of misconduct after the House Judiciary Committee'prepares to send articles of impeachment to the full Congress.
The full House is expected to vote on impeachment next week.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she doesn't plan to whip votes to support impeachment, saying that House leadership won't pressure Democrats in vulnerable districts or moderate Democrats fearing political fallout from supporting efforts to remove the president from office.
She said: "We are not whipping this legislation, nor do we ever whip something like this. People have to come to their own conclusions. They've seen the facts as presented ... They'll make their own decision. I don't say anything to them."
Meanwhile, the president had an explosive day on Twitter, including an attack on teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg after she was named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year ahead of him as the committee prepared to resume its debate over articles of impeachment threatening to end his presidency.
“So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” the president wrote on Twitter.
The president's campaign also shared a photo of the TIME cover with Mr Trump's face superimposed over the teenage climate activist.
Mr Trump also faced criticism for hosting notoriously antisemitic Texan pastor Robert Jeffress at his White House Hanukkah party, a man who once claimed Jews would go to hell and that Mr Trump’s impeachment would cause a “Civil War-like fracture” in American society.
Follow along developments as they happened.
Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee reads directly from the White House transcript of Donald Trump's phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and says the country is facing a "threat" from the current White House administration.
Republican Steve Chabot is defending the president's withholding of crucial military aid to Ukraine, saying "it's clear no abuse of power ever took place" and that Donald Trump was correct to withhold the funds while looking into corruption.
He also says the president is not accused of any crimes, while past presidents were actually accused of criminal activity. Of course, that is not the bar required to impeach a president.
Democrat Eric Swalwell is now speaking, looking directly into the cameras and saying the president's "conduct overlaps with criminal acts".
He goes on to discuss Donald Trump's demands for political investigations, referring to anti-bribery laws and explaining how those can be broadly used in some political cases.
It should be noted that California Democrat Eric Swalwell is a former prosecutor. He expertly lays out "at least two criminal statutory crimes" and says he may "one day" face charges for those crimes.
"If it's lying about sex we could put Stormy Daniels' case before us", Democrat Zoe Lofgren noted after Eric Swalwell spoke. "It's not an abuse of power."
Republican Louie Gohmert supports removing the abuse of power impeachment article against Donald Trump, suggesting the charges against the president must actually be related to criminal acts. That is not the bar the founding fathers set for impeaching a president in drafting the US Constitution.
Democrat Hakeem Jeffries is mapping out exactly when the aid was released by the White House to Ukraine, saying "the president was caught red-handed" after a whistleblower complaint detailed concerns about his phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Some analysis from The Independent's Andrew Feinberg as he watches the hearings from within the room where the markups are being made:
As Rep. Louie Gohmert complains that Judiciary Committee members weren’t allowed to watch witnesses testify (which is ridiculous because he was present for several of the public HPSCI hearings) “unlike in Watergate,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, who worked on the Watergate investigation as a House staffer, shakes her head.
Florida Republican Matt Gaetz is now lashing out against Democrats and saying there is "no evidence" and "no witnesses" in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.
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