Key Democrat says impeachment needed to stop

International Live: A key Democratic lawmaker said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s misconduct amounted to “a crime in progress” that threatens US democracy, as the full House prepares for a historic vote on impeachment.

“Do we have a constitutional democracy, or do we have a monarchy, where the president is unaccountable?” Representative Jerry Nadler asked on ABC’s “This Week.”

He expressed anger with Senate Republicans who said they had already made up their mind to exonerate the president even without hearing evidence or testimony in the Senate trial expected next month.

When the Democratic-controlled House convenes Wednesday to weigh the two charges approved by Nadler’s Judiciary Committee, Trump is expected to become only the third US president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998. Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 just before a House impeachment vote.
Neither Johnson nor Clinton was convicted in the Senate.

But Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, said Sunday that Democrats had come up with “zero evidence” of the “high crimes and misdemeanors” the US Constitution sets as the standard for impeachment.

“Conducting the trial according to this plan will… allow the public to have confidence in the process and will demonstrate that the Senate can put aside partisan concerns and fulfill its constitutional duty,” Schumer wrote.

Dhaka 16 December (campuslive24.com)//az

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