US President Trump has slammed the impeachment inquiry against him as a “disgrace” and “kangaroo court”. The US House Intelligence Committee resumed the public impeachment hearings on Tuesday.
He also blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as ‘grossly incompetent’ for allowing House lawmakers to focus on the ongoing inquiry instead of voting on a revamped North American free trade deal that was brokered by the White House last year.
The Republican president called Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “highly overrated” and “incompetent” for not passing the so-called US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA.
Trump made the comments at the start of a Cabinet meeting as lawmakers in the House of Representatives heard testimony from two government officials who listened in on the phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian president that is at the heart of the impeachment probe.
US Army officer Alexander Vindman, a Ukraine specialist, says Trump inappropriately pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son’s dealings in Ukraine.
Democrats are looking into whether Trump abused his power by withholding $391 million in US security aid to Ukraine as leverage to pressure Kiev to conduct an investigation that would benefit him politically.
Republicans have consistently criticized the Democratic-led impeachment investigation by saying that witnesses did not have firsthand knowledge of Trump’s role in trying to persuade Ukraine to investigate Biden.
House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry against Trump after a whistle blower alleged the Republican president pressured Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
News Punch / ABC Flash Point News 2019.