Nation/World

House Rules Committee to set parameters for historic debate on impeachment

WASHINGTON - The House was moving closer to impeaching President Donald Trump on Tuesday, as the Rules Committee met to set the parameters for the historic debate expected Wednesday over whether Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine violated his oath of office.

Hours after the committee gathered, Trump sent a six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi expressing his "strongest and most powerful protest" against impeachment, which he described as a partisan "crusade" by Democrats.

"This impeachment represents an unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power by Democrat Lawmakers, unequaled in nearly two and a half centuries of American legislative history," he wrote.

Trump also told reporters in the Oval Office that he takes "zero" responsibility for the fact that he is about to be impeached.

He faces two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

At the heart of the Democrats' case is the allegation that he tried to leverage a White House meeting and military aid, sought by Ukraine to combat Russian military aggression, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Trump is also said to have wanted a probe of an unfounded theory that Ukraine conspired with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

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Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Douglas Collins, R-Ga., offered sharply divergent takes on Trump's conduct as they began their presentations to the Rules Committee.

Raskin said the House inquiry produced "overwhelming evidence" to support the two articles of impeachment against Trump - abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

Raskin characterized Trump's conduct as "the Ukraine shakedown" and said the president had engaged in "outrageous defiance of Congress."

Raskin was standing in for House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., who had a family emergency.

Collins, the top Republican on the Judiciary panel, argued that Democrats had cherry-picked evidence to support their preexisting biases against Trump.

Delivering a colorful and fast-paced opening statement, Collins compared the atmosphere surrounding impeachment on Capitol Hill to “Alice in Wonderland” and said Democrats’ efforts were like “last-minute Christmas shopping.”

"They ran and found something and said, 'We can do it,' " he said of the charges contained in the articles of impeachment.

On Wednesday, a procedural vote by the full House, will launch the debate, which is expected to last several hours, culminating in a vote on the articles of impeachment.

Meanwhile, a coalition of liberal advocacy groups is planning to stage more than 400 rallies across the country on Tuesday night calling for Trump's impeachment.

"How wavering representatives and senators vote will be powerfully influenced by their conscience and, at least as much, by their political read on the situation," said an email promoting the events sent out by Public Citizens, one of the groups involved. "In short, they need to feel the heat from the public. That's why calls, emails and protests - visible manifestations of support for impeachment - matter so much."

Overally, 49% of Americans say Trump should be impeached and removed from office, while 46% say he should not, a Washington Post-ABC News poll. It also finds that regardless of whether Trump committed an impeachable offense, 49% say he improperly pressured Ukraine to investigate Biden and his son, while 39% say Trump did not do this.

Congress has impeached only two presidents: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 before the House could vote on articles of impeachment in the Watergate scandal. Lawmakers drafted three articles against Nixon, including charges of "high crimes and misdemeanors" that mirror the abuse-of-power and obstruction allegations Trump now faces.

Historians are noting the House is expected to vote to impeach Trump on Dec. 18 - one day short of the 21st anniversary of the House voting to impeach Clinton.

If the House votes to impeach Trump, the Senate trial is expected to start in early January.

While the White House has prevented senior administration officials from appearing before the House committees conducting the impeachment investigation, a large 71% majority of Americans say the president should allow those officials to testify at a Senate trial, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has advocated for several senior administration officials to testify, including acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and former national security adviser John Bolton.

But on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rejected Schumer position.

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"The fact that my colleague is already desperate to sign up the Senate for new fact-finding . . . suggests something to me," McConnell said of Schumer. "It suggests that even Democrats who do not like this president are beginning to realize how dramatically insufficient the House's rushed process has been."

Earlier Tuesday, group of Trump's conservative critics, including George Conway, the husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, announced the launch of a new super PAC with the aim of defeating Trump and his "enablers" at the ballot box.

"Our efforts are aimed at persuading enough disaffected conservatives, Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in swing states and districts to help ensure a victory in the Electoral College, and congressional majorities that don't enable or abet Mr. Trump's violations of the Constitution, even if that means Democratic control of the Senate and an expanded Democratic majority in the House," four leaders of the group, dubbed the Lincoln Project, wrote in a New York Times op-ed.

Besides Conway, other authors of the piece include veteran GOP consultants Steve Schmidt, John Weaver and Rick Wilson. Others involved in the effort, according to the group's website, include Reed Galen, an independent political strategist; Jennifer Horn, a former chairwoman of the New Hampshire Republican Party; and Mike Madrid, a Republican strategist.

In the op-ed, the group is critical not only of Trump but of congressional Republicans who have opposed the president's impeachment.

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The Washington Post’s Dan Balz, Scott Clement and Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

The Washington Post

Washington Post News Service

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