‘We are at war’
US President Donald Trump has called his impeachment probe a “war” as Democrats vowed to speed up the investigation, saying the evidence of abuse of power from his Ukraine phone call and attempts to cover up wrongdoing were already clear.
“We’re at war. These people are sick,” Trump says in a video obtained by Bloomberg.
He was speaking at a closed-doors gathering with US diplomats in New York on Thursday and apparently filmed by one of the people attending.
The event was held in the wake of the Democrats’ decision to launch an impeachment investigation into Trump’s alleged attempt to arm-twist the Ukrainian president into providing dirt on one of his main 2020 election rivals, Joe Biden.
The recording of the event, part of which was first published by the LA Times, showed Trump suggesting that whoever gave compromising information to the whistleblower was “close to a spy.”
While that comment prompted chuckles from the crowd, it has since been criticized by Trump’s opponents as being a veiled threat to the safety of the whistleblower and his sources.
The extended video clip published by Bloomberg showed more of the remarks in which Trump also refers to Biden as “dumb as a rock” -- getting more laughter from the diplomats. He also calls journalists “animals,” “scum” and “crooked.”
Democrats, meanwhile, stepped up the ante and yesterday pledged to move quickly on the impeachment investigation of the president.
“The clarity of the president’s actions is compelling and gave us no choice but to move forward,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“This is about the national security of our country: The president of the United States being disloyal to his oath of office, jeopardizing our national security, and jeopardizing the integrity of our elections.”
She announced that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who accused Trump of acting like a “mafia boss” this week, would take the lead in the investigation.
The fast-moving events have shaken the foundations of Trump’s tempestuous two-and-a-half-year presidency.
On Monday, Trump blithely swatted away a whistleblower report that alleged he sought to pressure Ukraine for information that could damage Biden.
At the same time, Pelosi was pushing back against mounting pressure in her party to impeach Trump, trying to keep the focus on battling next year’s elections.
But the tables have turned with the release of a memo on Trump’s July 25 call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, which confirmed he pressed for dirt on the Bidens, followed by the whistleblower’s complaint, which alleged the White House had attempted to cover up the call.
Democrats now appear able to muster the majority they need to vote through an impeachment motion in the House -- for only the third time in US history -- setting the stage for a possible trial of the president by the Republican-controlled Senate.
“We should move quickly but not hurriedly, and we should focus on this Ukraine call,” Eric Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN Friday.
“As a former prosecutor, I should tell you that cases are made much easier when the defendant cops to the act, and here the president is not denying what he said.”
“We don’t need to have a months-long hearing ... We have the president’s own words, and we have his conduct after the fact,” he said, referring to Trump’s attack on the still ‘anonymous’ whistleblower and other potential White House witnesses against him, labelling them spies and traitors.
The New York Times identified the whistleblower as a CIA officer who once worked in the White House.
“You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart? Right? The spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently than we do now,” Trump told US diplomats in a meeting at the United Nations.
Swalwell said the remarks, made Thursday to a crowd from the US Mission to the United Nations, showed “a consciousness of guilt. Innocent people don’t talk that way.”
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