Democrats Announce Articles of Impeachment Against Trump: Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress
What happened to the quid pro quo and bribery?
House Democrats announced two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
The Judiciary Committee will vote on the two articles later this week.
Nadler said on abuse of power: “It is an impeachable offense for the president to exercise the powers of his public office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring or injuring the national interest. That is exactly what president trump did when he solicited and pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 presidential election.”
Nadler explained obstruction of Congress: “A president who declares himself above accountability, above the American people and above congress’ power of impeachment — which is meant to protect against threats to our democratic institutions — is the President who sees himself as above the law.”
Schiff claimed that Trump continues to abuse his power as president, which left the Democrats “no choice” but to proceed with impeachment.
He insisted if the Democrats did nothing it would make them “complicit in the President’s abuse of his high office, the public trust and our national security.”
The Democrats control the House, but the Republicans have the majority in the Senate. It is unlikely impeachment will succeed in the Senate.
Earlier this morning, Trump tweeted:
To Impeach a President who has proven through results, including producing perhaps the strongest economy in our country’s history, to have one of the most successful presidencies ever, and most importantly, who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness! #2020Election
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
Read: House Dems introduce … by Fox News on Scribd
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Comments
I would hire Fat Jerry to manage a ice cream counter. He is a buffoon.
“would not” I think you mean.
Hate filled Pelosi and her Do-Nothing DEM Congress have
DONE NOTHING that anyone could obstruct.
Huh. Are they talking about Schiff or Trump?
The basis for both charges:
Abuse of Power: President Trump wasn’t suppose to have any power…it was all suppose to be Clinton’s. So any use of his executive abilities was going to be abuse.
Obstruction of Congress: President Trump fought the Democrats robustly, instead of rolling over and resigning. Therefore, he obstructed the plans to remove both him and his Vice President.
Trump is having a rally tonight in Pennsylvania. I predict it is going to be lit!
Amen!
Touche!
Leslie you squarely hit the DEMS on the head
with the truth.
Democrats: Vague charges based on vague conclusions based on lies.
To call them delusional would be a gross understatement. How is this a winning strategy?
I await Schiff, et al, testimony when called as witnesses.
They are claiming that he did nothing that the POTUS is not empowered to do BUT that the crime lies in his “intentions”. Mind reading. That was the crux of much of the 3rd and 4th level hearsay of the Schiff hearings. No evidence. Just what they “felt” Trump was doing.
The obstruction charges are also based on the non-existence of the separation of powers, that appealing to the judicial branch is obstruction of justice.
If McConnell does NOT reject these articles, he is a traitor. For Horowitz and Comey to say the things they said yesterday tells me that Barr and Dunham have the goods on bigger fish. It’s time to start arresting the Comeys etal and reset the narrative to expose the bigger fish.
I can’t wait for the Durham report. If the Horowitz report was this incriminating, what is it about the Durham report that has the Deep State throwing Comey under the bus?
When they start arresting the senior players in this, they’d better use open Hannibal Lector style cells with 24/7 camera coverage. Or they’ll commit “suicide” faster than Epstein. Lots of powerful folks below the radar want to stay there.
We should get up a collection to give Pelosi a copy
of the Constitution. When congress sends a bill to the
president, and he doesn’t like it , he can VETO it! Now
that is real obstruction, and is a part of the constitution.
I guess that Queen Pelosi thinks Trump works for her.
The president can obstruct congress, legally, using the
veto. I guess they will Impeach him again next time he
uses it.What a bunch of low intellect we have running the
country. Grade school losers. Policy is much too important
to be left to politicians.
Sorry about the down vote!!Fat-finger.
Last night I saw upon the stairs
The Whistleblower that wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today!
I wish he would tell us what he heard them say!
(apologies to author.)
This is madness. They truly hate the dirt people and their upstart president Trump. He should have known it was Hillary’s turn.
How can you obstruct a criminal act?
As long as they are making stuff up, I think the Dems/Progs are guilty of practicing intelligence without brains.
They make up whatever to fit their narrative. Then the wholly owned subsidiary of the Dems/Progs, dinosaur media, will back everything up.
Article 1 – Trump won the 2016 election
Article 2 – See Article 1
Shameful nonsense and hypocrisy.
Is either of these a high crime or misdemeanor as defined in the Constitution?
Anything that obstructs Congress is a good thing, not a crime!
Can we get a refund on the taxes wasted by these kangaroo courts and witch hunts?
Claiming executive privilege and letting the courts hash it out isn’t an abuse of power, nor is it an obstruction of justice. Schiff doesn’t seem to understand how any of this works in real life.
The defendant (president) is not required to participate in his prosecution (impeachment)!
That Trump hasn’t been hanged yet is proof that he has obstructed congress.
Well Nancy worked up that smile. The wide shot of this gang shown elsewhere when little Nadler was speaking told the story. They all looked like they had filled their shorts and were desperate to get off camera.
To be fair, Mad Max always looks like someone is hold a small turd under her nose
Does the house judicial committee have actual proof on either charge? I’ve read a lot of hearsay and claims, but I haven’t run across anything concrete. In fact, what I have seen is abuse of power actually from the House Democrats and the previous white house administration. I’d be interested if folks have links to any facts supporting the impeachment claims. Thanks.
It’s abuse of power to investigate Dem’s corrupt practices in Ukraine and it obstruction of congress to ask a court to determine executive privilege
I have the same questions. What specific acts is President Trump alleged to have done that warrant these charges, where is the evidence that he in fact did them, and would they in fact constitute the crimes of which he is accused?
All I see is hearsay, distortions, quotations out of context, and a theory of the case that seems to be based more on partisan animosity and wishful thinking than a sound interpretation of the Constitutional requirements for impeachment.
LOL they had to pull the punch on quid pro quo to make it more believable (wrapped it up in a very vague “abuse of power” charge)…instead, it just looks like desperation.
The weakness of the charges proves that Schiff’s claim to be reluctant to pursue impeachment is a galaxy sized whopper of a lie.
This story photo clearly shows three old hags in need of three paper bags.
The Judiciary Committee will vote on the two articles later this week.
So, still nothing but talk. And that’s just for the Committee. Until the House votes, all this is nothing but a particularly noisy series of press releases.
To be a Dem in the House, you are forced to believe two mutually contradictory things.
1) That Joe Biden did nothing wrong by using the full power of the US Government to withhold a billion dollars worth of aid to a country that had been invaded by Russia, in exchange for getting the prosecutor fired who was looking into Hunter Biden’s corrupt Ukrainian employer.
2) That the entire US election should be annulled because Trump attempted to have Ukraine look into how this happened back in 2016.
As far as I can see through these years, the ones who have abused power are the Democrats.
The second charge has been been ruled on repeatedly, despite the insane left’s desires when it comes to pushing their abuse of powers, a president can cite executive privilege for himself and his advisors.
So even though these anti-American Democrats claims, there is only one thin charge which is opinion based, not specific instances where Trump used his power to have something illegal performed.
He opened the can of worms which scared the crap out of a lot of politicians who were benefiting from Ukraine’s corruption.
This is all about the 2020 election! Sen Murphy (D) RI has opined that getting even one Republican Senator to vote to remove Trump would help the Democrat’s prospects in 2020
Not that I take any pleasure in claiming Murphy as my senator, but I must correct you that Chris Murphy is indeed CT’s (not RI’s) freshman senator (shudder).
Most of the lunatic dem base believes impeachment = removal. Once the senate fails to remove the president, the howling at the sky will begin.
So executive privilege is obstruction of Congress yet president pen and phone is ok?
I hope all the Ukraine dirt comes out and people are sent to jail.
They’re just making this sh*t up as they go. No clue.
Complete garbage. Laughable. The Democrats are just stupid.
Article 1 has already been debunked in this thread. It’s already been shredded in front of the House. I look forward to watching the Republicans who control the Senate shredding it again and I look forward to it being shredded in the trial. All the witnesses that the Democrats didn’t make public will now be public. That includes the whistle blower, his NSC friends who work for Schiff, and of course Schiff himself.
Article 2 is a disgrace and a direct threat to the balance of the branches and future presidents. The three branches of the government are equal to each other. The legislative branch of course has the right to subpoena stuff from the executive branch BUT the executive branch has the right to say no to subpoena based on executive privilege. Arguments over whether something falls under executive privilege than go to the courts to decide.
#1 Did at anytime the executive branch violate a court order to hand over documentation? NO. There is no instance anywhere during the Trump administration where a court ordered the executive branch to hand over documentation and the executive branch still refused to honor the court ruling.
#2 Did at any time when the executive branch claimed executive privilege did the legislative branch go to the judicial branch to request that the judicial branch make a decision on whether or not the executive branch has to hand over requested data? NO. There are multiple instances of the legislative branch demanding data and the executive branch claiming executive privilege and instead of going to the judicial branch the legislative branch than claimed that the executive branch was obstructing Congress. That is not how it works. You can’t skip the steps in the process. You must go to the judicial branch. The legislative branch is equal to the executive branch. It is not superior to the executive branch. The executive branch has the right to assert it’s rights under the Constitution. Even in the middle of an “impeachment inquiry” the executive branch still has the right assert executive privilege.
Under Article 2 of this farce the Democrats are pushing a theory that could result in the impeachment of every future president regardless of party affiliations. All administrations at one time or another have claimed executive privilege in response to legislative branch inquires. In some cases if the legislative branch really wants the requested information it would go to the judicial branch. With the Democrats line of thinking the legislative branch could skip the judicial branch, claim obstruction, and than file articles of impeachment against a sitting president. All past presidents could have been impeached based on this current theory being put forth by the Democrats.
The judicial branch helps decides cases where the legislative branch and the executive branch are fighting over subpoenas. The judicial branch has ruled multiple times over the last 200 years that the executive branch has the right to claim executive privilege. The judicial branch has also ruled when the legislative branch is correct and the executive branch must hand over requested data. When you read Article II: Obstruction Of Congress note two things:
#1 At no point does the article point out where the executive branch ignored a judicial ruling to hand over request data.
#2 Instead of writing Obstruction of Justice they weasel it by saying Obstruction of Congress. They are trying to get around the fact that they, the legislative branch, didn’t even bother to go to the judicial branch to ask for a ruling on which branch of government is correct.
There is no way this makes it through the Senate. Article 1 will embarrass the Democrats because they won’t be able to play the games they did in the House. Article 2 will fail because the administration will bring in all the previous SCOTUS rulings that show the executive branch has the right to assert executive privilege. It will also fail because the Democrats in the Senate will realize that if they hold the White House in 2020 and the Republicans hold the House of Representatives than the Republicans will issue subpoenas for everything and the Democrat president would be unable to claim executive privilege because they could than face impeachment articles.
Personally I think both these articles fail in the House. I hope I’m wrong. I want a trial in the Senate for the whole country to see. We will see the Senate not only not convict on either charge, which both are really weak charges, but we will see defections in the Democrats who will vote to not convict because there is no case, they want to protect a possible future Democrat presidency, and/or they want to save their own necks in future elections if they are in states that not locked into the Democrat party. Just in time for 2020.
Thank you leftists for making Trump’s 2020 chances even better.
Thank you leftists for making Trump’s 2020 chances even better.
And a bunch of aspiring congressmen’s and senators’, too.
‘Discovery’ in the trial will be illuminating. And absolutely devastating.
Nadler explained obstruction of Congress:
I would reply “*points to veto power* I’m SUPPOSED to obstruct Congress! It’s my JOB!”
That most democrats, including Schiff, Nadler, and Pelosi are themselves most likely guilty of the crimes of “quid pro quo” and “bribery” in their long careers I’d hazard a guess they didn’t want to create a precedent for removal for those crimes because it might come back and bite them on the ass at some point in the future.
So, if I’m following this right, they’re impeaching Trump because they think he’s interfering in their rigging the 2020 election (like they did in 2016.)
With charges of 1) doing his job, using the powers of the presidency, and 2) acting like the executive branch is less than entirely subordinate to one party’s control of one chamber of congress.
LOL. Obstruction of Congress. What a joke.
I agree. For the last 3 years, the dems and the media have been grossly abusing their power and obstructing Congress form doing the business of the people. Oh, wait, that’s not what she meant? Huh.
What a dingbat.
Isn’t Obstructing Congress part of his job description? Especially when they push crap bills to his desk?