Trump talks of 'civil war' if he is impeached
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Trump talks of 'civil war' if he is impeached
Zamira Rahim, The Independent 4 hours ago
Donald Trump has raised the spectre of divisions akin to a civil war in the US in the event that he is impeached, in a series of incendiary posts on Twitter .
The president appeared to approvingly quote Robert Jeffress, a pastor and Fox News contributor, in a stream of late-night tweets.
“If the Democrats are successful in removing the President from office (which they will never be), it will cause a Civil War like fracture in this Nation from which our Country will never heal,” Mr Jeffress said, in words then quoted by Mr Trump.
The president tweeted and reposted several defences of his behaviour on Sunday night and lashed out at the Democratic Party .
He also demanded to meet the whistleblower at the heart of a scandal that has triggered a formal impeachment inquiry in Congress, and warned of “big consequences” for those involved.
The president said he wanted to question Adam Schiff, the chair of the intelligence committee, on charges of fraud and treason.
“Like every American, I deserve to meet my accuser, especially when this accuser, the so-called 'Whistleblower,' represented a perfect conversation with a foreign leader in a totally inaccurate and fraudulent way,” the 73-year-old said.
“Then Schiff made up what I actually said by lying to Congress.
“His lies were made in perhaps the most blatant and sinister manner ever seen in the great Chamber.”
The president claimed: “He wrote down and read terrible things, then said it was from the mouth of the President of the United States. I want Schiff questioned at the highest level for Fraud & Treason.
“In addition, I want to meet not only my accuser, who presented SECOND & THIRD HAND INFORMATION, but also the person who illegally gave this information, which was largely incorrect, to the “Whistleblower.”
“Was this person SPYING on the US President? Big Consequences!”
The White House was thrown into chaos after the whistleblower’s complaint was made last month.
The complaint was triggered by a 25 July phone call between Donald Trump and Volodyyr Zelensky , in which the president appeared to urge the Ukranian leader to investigate Joe Biden , the 2020 Democratic frontrunner.
Mr Trump’s remarks reportedly caused alarm and the whistleblower, who is believed to be a member of the intelligence community, submitted the official complaint on 12 August.
In the wake of the scandal Democrats have announced an official impeachment inquiry. Many accused the president of pressuring a vulnerable ally for personal political gain.
The inquiry is being led by the intelligence committee, helmed by Adam Schiff.
Mr Schiff chaired a hearing on 26 September during which he questioned Joseph Maguire, Mr Trump’s acting director of national intelligence.
During the hearing the spy chief declined to discuss whether he spoke to the president about the complaint in question, saying his conversations with Mr Trump are “executive privilege”.
In his opening remarks, the acting spy chief said he welcomed congress’ oversight duties, adding: “I am not partisan and I am not political”.
He also said he did not know the identity of the whistleblower, but when asked whether he believed the anonymous individual was a “partisan hack” as the president has said, Mr Maguire responded: “I think the whistleblower did the right thing.”
Mr Maguire described foreign election interference as “unwarranted,” adding: “It is unwelcome. It is bad for the nation.”
Adam Schiff has said he expects the whistleblower to come before his committee in the near future.
The president has denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
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He's fighting a civil war in his head.
I wonder if the East or West is winning ...
Depends on whether he ate Taco Bell for lunch...
His "soldiers" will be too busy with NASCAR, beer bongs, and BBQ to fight.
He's not wrong about Schiff. He sat right there in committee the other day and made obviously untrue claims about the content of a phone call transcript we have all seen. He literally said there were things in the transcript that aren't there.
Schiff tried to fudge what he was doing by saying it was the "essence" of the conversation and later walked it back even further by claiming it was some kind of "parody." Really. A congressional hearing examining possible impeachment is the time and place for parody? Nobody with sense buys that.
Even the "essence" bit makes light of a process that should be entirely serious. If you have to bend the truth and rely on partisan, subjective interpretations to impeach the president, then you shouldn't be doing it.
Schiff's resort to lying about the phone call tells you all you need to know if Democrats believe they have a legitimate basis for impeachment.
You support someone who is a chronicle liar. But hey, that doesn't matter to the Kool Aid intoxicated masses.
Guns and bibles. Yep. That is the ticket. Praise the fetus--damn the child.
That is , EXACTLY, what Schiff said as soon as he finished his 'satire'. That is an announcement by Schiff if you will that what he just said was not the word for word of what Trump had said on the transcript, but rather a paraphrasing of the "sum and character" of it.
Schiff did nothing wrong in that situation other than not make it glaringly clear that he was using an artistic liberty to give a particular meaning to what Trump said. He didnt try to sneak it past everyone. Immediately after the 'characterization' , he SAYS IT WAS A CHARACTERIZATION.
MAAN
"sum and character" at 5:10 mark of video
A man in his position performing the duty he has should not be engaging in artistic license at all. He's not an artist. He's supposed to be a congressman and he's supposed to be safeguarding justice. He should be dealing in facts, not artistry.
What he did was to invent a particular meaning and assign it to what Trump said. We the People do not need Adam Schiff to tell us "essentially" what Trump said. Give us the facts and let us decide for ourselves. If he can't do that, he has to lie, which is what he did.
And by the way, not everything Schiff said was simply interpretive. He flat out said things that aren't true.
A civil war, Trump? You really think you're worth it?