President Donald Trump amped up his attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Sunday night, accusing her and Rep. Adam Schiff of "treason" and should be "immediately Impeached."
Trump accused the House speaker of allowing unfair tactics while investigating a phone call he made with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that has become the central focus of an impeachment inquiry that was launched by Democrats in the House earlier this month.
"Nancy Pelosi knew of all of the many Shifty Adam Schiff lies and massive frauds perpetrated upon Congress and the American people, in the form of a fraudulent speech knowingly delivered as a ruthless con, and the illegal meetings with a highly partisan “Whistleblower” & lawyer," Trump tweeted late Sunday night. "This makes Nervous Nancy every bit as guilty as Liddle’ Adam Schiff for High Crimes and Misdemeanors, and even Treason. I guess that means that they, along with all of those that evilly “Colluded” with them, must all be immediately Impeached!"
As it happens, members of congress cannot be impeached and are instead removed through a two-thirds majority vote by their fellow representatives in Congress. House members can also be censured. Impeachment is generally used for investigating judges or executive branch officials that may have committed crimes while in office.
Trump has repeatedly asserted without evidence, that Schiff should be arrested for treason after the congressman paraphrased the president's phone call during a televised hearing. Schiff said during his presentation that Trump had directed Zelensky on the phone call to "make up dirt on my political opponent" - in this case former Vice President Joe Biden - seven times during the July 25 phone call.
"Of course, the president never said, ‘If you don’t understand me I’m going to say it seven more times,’ my point is, that’s the message that the Ukraine president was receiving in not so many words,” Schiff said of his comments about the phone call.
Trump's tirade against Pelosi and Schiff come after news that a second whistleblower, one with "first-hand knowledge" of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky, has come forward. According to attorney Andrew Bakaj, his firm has been working with the whistleblowers connected with the August 12 disclosure to the Intelligence Community Inspector General.
"This is simple. It’s not about the whistleblower or the complaint. It’s not about Democrats. Or me," Schiff tweeted over the weekend. "It’s about a damning call in which the President pressured a foreign power to investigate a political rival, harming national security. It’s about our democracy."
Included among the dozens of tweets and retweets sent by the president this weekend was one in which he went after a member of his own party, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). Romney had criticized the president for calling on China to investigate Biden as well. Trump went on to call for Romney's impeachment, which again, members of Congress are not subject to the impeachment process.
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