Latest Trump Impeachment News Nov. 18: President Says He's Considering Testifying Before House Impeachment Investigators
President Trump tweeted Monday he may take House Speaker Nancy Pelosi up on her invitation to testify before the House impeachment hearings.
The public phase of the hearings got underway last week with three veteran diplomats who testified they were confused and upset over a shadow diplomacy in Ukraine orchestrated by Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
An ABC-Ipsos poll released Monday indicates 70% of Americans think Trump was wrong to ask Zelensky to investigate Biden and 51% said he should be removed from office. Only 21% said they are following the hearings closely.
“Even though I did nothing wrong, and don’t like giving credibility to his no due process hoax, I like the idea and will, in order to get Congress focused again, strongly consider it!” Trump wrote.
Impeachment investigators are trying to determine whether Trump abused the power of his office in withholding $391 million in military aid and a White House visit by Ukraine President Vladymyr Zelensky when he asked Zelensky to do him a “favor” and investigate his political opponents.
Trump has described his July 25 phone call with Zelensky as “perfect,” and Republicans lately have started spinning his request as demonstrating concern over corruption in Ukraine.
Pelosi Sunday invited Trump to testify before lawmakers.
“If the president has information that demonstrates his innocence in all of this, which we haven't seen … . If he has information that is exculpatory, that means X, taking away culpable blame, then we look forward to seeing it,” Pelosi said Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
She added: “So the president could come right before the committee and talk, speak all the truth that he wants if he wants … if he wants to take the oath of office or he could do it in writing. He has every opportunity to present his case.”
Pelosi characterized Trump’s actions as “so much worse than even what Richard Nixon did, that at some point Richard Nixon cared about the country enough to recognize that this could not continue.” Nixon resigned from office in 1974 ahead of a House impeachment vote over the coverup of the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate building.
House impeachment hearings continue this week with testimony from U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, who was at the heart of alleged pressure on Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, his son, Hunter, and a debunked conspiracy theory alleging Ukraine rather than Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Sondland is scheduled to testify Wednesday.
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