Trump brands impeachment move a 'witch hunt', says no other president has been treated as badly as him
The Trump Era of Amercian politics saw perhaps its most dramatic twist on Tuesday, September 24, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the launch of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. The move was initiated in the wake of allegations that Trump put pressure on the government of Ukraine to investigate political opponent Joe Biden and his son Hunter who had professional dealings in the east European nation.
It is a gamble of sorts for the Democrats who are desperate to stop Trump from winning another term. The Democrats don’t yet know the content of Trump’s July 25 phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky. The call had prompted a whistleblower complaint. However, intelligence heads refused to reveal the details of the call or the contents of the complaint. Observers believe that this could lead to Trump's opponents missing their target eventually.
Trump, however, is not taking things lying down. The Republican president started his usual rant on Twitter against his enemies at home. He has also pledged to publish the declassified transcript of his phone call with Zelensky. Meanwhile, his administration has planned to release to the Congress the controversial whistleblower complaint. It remains to be seen if the Democrats can use the documents to back their charges against Trump.
Trump cries 'witch hunt', yet again
The mercurial president posted a series of tweets lambasting his opponents over the issue. He called it a “witch hunt” again and again, just as he did when his critics bayed for his blood over the charges of collusion with Russia. He also called the Democrats’ impeachment drive “presidential harassment”. On the question of releasing the transcript of his phone call with Zelensky, Trump confirmed in another tweet that Secretary of State State Pompeo got permission from the government of Ukraine to release it. He said even Kiev didn’t know what the big deal is.
After Trump announced in a tweet that he has authorized the release of fully declassified and unredacted transcript of his call with Zelensky even while he was the UN representing the US, Pelosi insisted that it was not enough and sought the entire complaint be turned over when acting director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire testifies on Thursday, September 26.
Trump lashed out at the statement saying the Democrats hadn’t even seen the transcript of the call. He also slammed the heads of some of the committees that are investigating him, and which would now proceed under the impeachment inquiry, as per Pelosi’s plan of action.
Invoking Hillary and Obama
In another tweet, the president even went to the extent of citing a book by former federal prosecutor Andrew MacCarthy titled 'Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency' in which it is claimed that the actual “collusion” in the 2016 presidential election was not between the Trump campaign and Russia but between the Hillary Clinton campaign and the outgoing Barack Obama administration.
Trump mentioned the words “witch hunt” in five tweets that he has posted in the last 14 hours, saying in the latest one that there has been not another president in history who has been treated as badly as him.
Trump campaign reacts
The campaign for Trump’s 2020 re-election bid was as furious over Pelosi’s move. Campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement: “Democrats can’t beat President Trump on his policies or his stellar record of accomplishment, so they’re trying to turn a Joe Biden scandal into a Trump problem. The misguided Democrat impeachment strategy is meant to appease their rabid, extreme, leftist base, but will only serve to embolden and energize President Trump’s supporters and create a landslide victory for the President.”