On Wednesday the U.S. House will vote on whether or not to impeach President Donald Trump; on MidPoint, we talked to an activist who is organizing a demonstration in St. Petersburg Tuesday evening supporting impeachment.
Wednesday vote is expected to succeed, mostly along party lines, to impeach a sitting U.S. president for only the third time in history.
According to the AP: ‘House Democrats have released a Judiciary Committee report detailing the rationale for impeaching President Trump. The 650-page report says Trump “betrayed the nation by abusing his high office to enlist a foreign power in corrupting democratic elections.” Trump faces two articles of impeachment: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. They stem from Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to investigate 2020 political rival Joe Biden while withholding as leverage military aid the country relies to counter Russia as well as his efforts to block the House investigation. Trump says he’s done nothing wrong. The House is expected to vote Wednesday on the impeachment articles.’
The rally is at North Straub Park in downtown St. Petersburg beginning at 5:30 p.m. [There are others in Tampa, Bradenton, Spring Hill and Lakeland as well]. Andrea Hildebran Smith is the host of ResistanceMom podcast and is with Floridians Against Corruption and Treason.
The general election is in fewer than eleven months; so I asked why she supports impeachment?
The articles of impeachment cite President Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress – by pressuring Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden and his son Hunter for his connection to the Ukrainian company Burisma.
AP: ‘A vote could come as soon as Wednesday, with a meeting to set debate rules already scheduled for Tuesday. Floor consideration is expected to be much like that of a regular bill. Meanwhile, Senate leaders are considering how to structure a trial for President Donald Trump. In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer proposed calling four witnesses [incl. former national security adviser John Bolton and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney] during a trial that could last three weeks or longer. Trump denies any wrongdoing.’
We also played a clip from the Congressional testimony of law professor Jonathan Turley, who said the Democrats are rushing. He recommends issuing subpoenas for witnesses and letting the courts rule on whether they should be compelled to testify.
On Monday PolitiFact announced its Lie of the Year and it’s directly related to the impeachment vote: President Trump’s claim that the whistleblower got Trump’s phone call with the President of Ukraine “almost completely wrong.”
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Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
