White House chief deputy spokeswoman Hogan Gidley said US President Donald Trump Trump himself wants to consider impeachment, but in the Senate.
“I spoke with the president about this tonight. ... the President has not done anything illegal. He wants this to be clearly and clearly explained to the American people. However, he believes that the House of Representatives has no reason to continue (impeachment proceedings. - RT ). But if they insist, he wants the case to be heard in the Senate, ”he said on Fox News.
According to him, Trump wants to attract such witnesses, "as Adam Schiff, as a whistleblower (an anonymous person who filed a complaint about Trump Zelensky’s call. - RT ), as well as Hunter Biden and Joe Biden."
"He argues that if the House of Representatives continues to insist on this nonsense and continues to impose a false and unlawful procedure on the American people (impeachment. - RT ), then let the matter be referred to the Senate, he wants to be considered in the Senate," said Gidley.
Note that in the Senate, the question of removing the US president from power will be decided if most of the members of the House of Representatives vote for the impeachment of Trump after the hearing in the lower house.
Unilateral investigation
Recall that back in September, amid the scandal over President Trump’s July call to his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of the impeachment proceedings against Trump. An investigation into the circumstances of this call was launched on congressional committees.
At the same time, representatives of the dominant Democratic Party in the House accused Trump of pressure on Zelensky and an attempt to use his official position as US President for personal purposes - to initiate an investigation against former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden is considered one of the Democrats favorites in the 2020 election race, which means Trump’s potential rival in the upcoming presidential election.
Biden’s son, Hunter, after the Ukrainian Maidan, suddenly joined the board of directors of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. Trying to investigate the affairs of the company, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired. At the same time, Joe Biden openly admitted that the official was fired under his pressure.
However, the American Congress was not indignant at the activities of the Biden family, but about the request of Trump Zelensky to investigate the circumstances of Shokin's dismissal.
Key officials related to US-Ukraine relations were summoned and testified at closed congressional committees. Among them are former US Ambassador to Ukraine Mary Jovanovic, US Chargé d'Affaires William Taylor, US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, former Special Representative of the US Congress on Ukraine Kurt Walker and former Trump Advisor on issues related to Russia, Fiona Hill .
On October 31, the House of Representatives approved a resolution to begin the public phase of Trump's impeachment. On November 13, Congress began an open hearing on the impeachment of the US president.
During this time, Americans learned from congressional testimonies that the Trump administration and his lawyer Rudi Giuliani were discussing with each other and with the staff of the administration of Vladimir Zelensky the prospects of instituting criminal proceedings in Ukraine against the Burisma company related to the Biden family, and also heard the opinion of a number of employees Trump’s administration that the president’s conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart was “inappropriate” and even heard that the US Army lieutenant colonel and the director of the European Department The National Security Council nta Alexander Windman was offered three times to become the Minister of Defense of Ukraine.
They also learned that President Trump personally ordered the freezing of military assistance to Ukraine, which was just at the time when attempts were made to get an investigation into Burisma from Kiev.
- Donald Trump impeachment hearing
- Reuters
- © Andrew Harrer / Pool
Donald Trump has repeatedly called what is happening as a witch hunt. Representatives of his administration and leading Republican politicians also sharply criticized the House of Representatives investigation, noting his bias and one-sided nature.
So, Trump demanded to reveal the identity of the person who filed a complaint about his conversation with Zelensky as part of the US National Intelligence apparatus, with which the whole story of impeachment began. Democrats said the president was threatening a valuable witness and refused to report who they were talking about. At the same time, the media noted that the informant may be associated with one of the presidential candidates from the Democratic Party.
The democratic leadership of the House of Representatives and the Democratic congressmen, who demanded to interrogate Trump Hunter Biden as part of the investigation into the impeachment, also refused.
“As for voting in the lower house, with a 80% probability, the democratic majority will vote for impeachment and referral to the Senate,” American political scientist Dmitry Drobnitsky said in an interview with RT. - The only problem of the Democrats is that they will vote for impeachment strictly by party affiliation. So, it will be demonstrated that this is not an attempt to clarify the truth, but a purely political, party action. ”
Senate battle
According to experts, the investigation and even voting on impeachment of the president in the lower house of Congress does not guarantee his removal from power. Under US law, the decisive word rests with the Senate.
- US Senate
- © US Senate
In the upper house, after the lower vote for a resolution on impeachment by a simple majority of votes, they will have to hold their hearings on this issue. At the same time, in order to remove Trump from office, 2/3 of the senators' votes will be needed. Now the majority in the Senate is with the Republican party of the president.
“In this case, it is clear that Trump and the Republicans supporting him will have a chance to do what they were not allowed to do in the House of Representatives. Namely, to consider not only the Ukrainian case, but also all the affairs of the Obama administration, which were directed against the candidate, and then against President Trump, ”said Dmitry Drobnitsky.
Back in September, the chairmen of the two Senate committees - for internal security and financial - Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley wrote to Attorney General William Barr with a request to check any ties between Ukrainian politicians and Hillary Clinton, who, along with Trump, ran for president in 2016.
On October 21, Senate Law Committee Chairperson Lindsay Graham sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo a request for contact details between Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, representatives of the Barack Obama administration and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
According to Graham’s letter, this is necessary “to help answer questions regarding allegations that Vice President Joe Biden has played a role in the dismissal of Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to end the investigation into the company his son worked for ".
Today, I sent a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo requesting documents related to contacts between:
➡️ Vice President Biden
➡️ Hunter Biden
➡️ other Obama administration officials and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
On the same day, Graham announced that on December 9, the U.S. Attorney General General Michael Horowitz will present a report on whether the FBI violated U.S. law while spying on Trump headquarters in 2016. And on December 11 Horowitz will testify in the Senate.
Department of Justice Inspector General (IG) Michael Horowitz has accepted an invitation to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, December 11.
The IG's report will be released on Monday, December 9.https: //t.co/V1AzeRGARh
According to CNN, referring to its sources, the report of the inspector general of the Justice Ministry contains information that a certain FBI officer under investigation forged a document related to the circumstances of the surveillance of one of the employees of Trump's campaign headquarters Carter Page.
Earlier, Donald Trump himself did not rule out that he could also speak at the impeachment hearing.
“If Donald Trump really comes there, it will not benefit his opponents. He will simply spread them publicly, ”political analyst Alexander Asafov said in an interview with RT.
Democrats before a choice
According to Dmitry Drobnitsky, it is simply impossible to recruit the right number of Republican senators who risk taking a “political suicide” by voting for Trump’s impeachment.
“No handcuffs, no prison, no resignation - there will be nothing of this,” the political scientist claims.
The fact that the removal of Trump through the impeachment procedure is impossible, Alexander Asafov is sure.
“Democrats, Trump's accusers, will just make fun of themselves. The US president wants to expose opponents to public flogging, proving that they have no arguments other than hatred for Trump, ”the expert believes.
- Donald Trump and Lindsay Graham
- Reuters
- © Jonathan Ernst
According to Dmitry Drobnitsky, having shown that they are ready for an investigation in the Senate, which will also affect the Democrats, Trump and his allies put their opponents in an intractable dilemma.
“Now the leadership of the Democratic Party will have to weigh: either refuse further consideration of the case in the Senate, and therefore remove the impeachment from the agenda, which in general will affect them badly, or they will have an investigation in the Senate,” the political scientist emphasized. - That's just the Senate is controlled by the Republicans, and there are more stringent legal standards. All the ins and outs of Biden and the Democratic Party will come out, and the case may turn out not against Trump, but against the Democrats and special services. A difficult situation. But Trump shows that he is ready for her, and he has a game plan for this case. ”