The Democrats are all aboard the Impeach Trump train amid reports that President Trump threatened Ukrainian officials if they didn’t investigate Joe Biden and his son.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has resisted all efforts to impeach Trump, will hold a closed-door meeting with House Democrats today at 4pm to start formal impeachment proceedings.
At issue is whether President Trump threatened to withhold military aid money from Ukrainian officials if they didn’t reopen their investigation into possible corruption by Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.
Pelosi previously declined to begin impeachment proceedings against Trump unless the American people demanded it.
Americans remain divided on the decision to impeach Trump, according to multiple polls.
Trump is under fire for asking the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, who reportedly took $1.5 billion in payouts from China and was paid millions in lucrative business dealings with Ukrainian officials.
Trump was interested in reports that Biden, while still vice president, forced out Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin who was investigating Hunter’s business dealings with an energy company called Burisma Holdings.
Trump called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in July to congratulate him on winning the election.
During the conservation Trump made an inquiry into reports that Hunter, who was not a public official, was paid millions of dollars as a board member of Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings.
Speaking to reporters Monday at the United Nations, President Trump denied asking Ukraine officials to reopen their investigation into Biden and his son.
Questioning what law he’d broken, Trump said “it would probably, possibly have been O.K. if I did”.
“But I didn’t,” Trump insisted. “I didn’t put any pressure on them whatsoever.”
Trump failed to explain why he placed a freeze on hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to the Ukraine just one week before the phone call with the Ukraine president.
Trump said he didn’t threaten to withhold military aid money from Zelensky if he didn’t reopen the investigation into Hunter Biden.
The president also hinted he may turn over a recording of the phone conversation.
Trump criticized the White House whistleblower who revealed the phone conversation, calling him or her “unpatriotic.”
