The House Rules Committee is set to meet Tuesday to put forth the process the full House will follow when it considers articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump.
The procedural step will set the stage for what is widely expected to be a vote nearly down party lines Wednesday with the majority Democrats approving Trump’s impeachment over the objections of lawmakers in his Republican Party.
As the process moved closer to the House vote, Trump sparred Monday with House Democrats who accused him of “multiple federal crimes” in the abuse of the presidency.
“The Impeachment Hoax is the greatest con job in the history of American politics!” Trump contended on Twitter. “The Fake News Media, and their partner, the Democrat Party, are working overtime to make life for the United Republican Party, and all it stands for, as difficult as possible!”
READ THE TRANSCRIPTS! The Impeachment Hoax is the greatest con job in the history of American politics! The Fake News Media, and their partner, the Democrat Party, are working overtime to make life for the United Republican Party, and all it stands for, as difficult as possible!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
The war of words between the White House and House Democrats came as the lead Senate Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, wrote to McConnell that Democrats want to hear testimony from four key Trump administration officials at Trump’s trial who did not testify in the House inquiry controlled by Democrats.
Schumer says the Senate should subpoena acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, top Mulvaney aide Robert Blair, as well as former National Security Adviser John Bolton and budget official Michael Duffey.
Schumer told reporters Monday, “We want to come up with a fair trial where the facts come out.” He said the White House and Republicans should support calling the four officials as witnesses “unless they have something to hide.”
McConnell, however, has said he will coordinate Trump’s defense with the president’s lawyers and the parameters of a Senate trial have yet to be decided.
McConnell has raised the prospect of a short trial with no witnesses called, ending with a Senate vote on Trump’s fate after House impeachment managers present their case against Trump and the president’s lawyers lay out his defense.
Trump has said he is agreeable to a short trial with no witnesses, but at other times has said he wants to hear testimony from the unnamed government whistleblower who first raised concerns about his late July request to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and from his son, Hunter Biden, about his work for a Ukrainian natural gas company. The whistleblower is reported to be a former White House aide who now works at the Central Intelligence Agency.
Trump also asked Zelenskiy to investigate a debunked claim that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election Trump won to undermine his candidacy. But Schumer said the Senate trial should not be about “conspiracy theories.”