Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has announced that impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump will start, following calls from other House democrats to do so. The impeachment investigation stems from a phone call that Trump had with Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, wherein he is said to have spoken about former U.S. vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter. According to CBS News, there was a “whistleblower complaint” filed within the intelligence community, and as a result the inspector general of that community found the complaint to be credible and of “urgent concern.”
Watch a Livestream of the Speech Here
Videos by PopCulture.com
Rumors of the impeachment news hit social media earlier today, and certainly had many people talking, with Democratic presidential-hopeful Elizabeth Warren being one of the first.
I called for impeachment five months ago, the day after the Mueller report came out. Trump continues to commit crimes because he believes he’s above the law. If Congress does nothing to respond, he’ll be right.
We must begin impeachment proceedings—now. https://t.co/aHbX63coJC
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 24, 2019
“We appear to have a president who may have used funds designed to protect the security of the United States as a means to gain political dirt on an opponent,” Warren’s fellow candidate Bernie Sanders tweeted. “We need to begin the impeachment process immediately.”
“One thing I’ll say about the current impeachment movement in the House is that Democrats certainly had a high bar. You can’t accuse them of rushing into this,” journalist Matt Fuller added. “This was a painfully reluctant conclusion that they only came to because Trump’s actions are so blatantly impeachable.”
I said it on the floor of the US Senate in May & I’ll say it again: Congress must fulfill its Constitutional duty & begin impeachment proceedings against the President. Nobody is above the law – not even the President of the United States. pic.twitter.com/S5uNJyiQNK
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) September 24, 2019
Per CBS News, during a phone call Trump allegedly “urged” Zelensky to do an investigation of Biden, after having also allegedly instructed Mick Mulvaney — his acting chief of staff — to wait on releasing nearly $400 million in military aid Congress had already appropriated for Ukraine.
Eventually, the funds were released after about two months of being withheld.
President said he’s releasing call transcript. Remember it’s the whistleblower complaint we must see. Not just one call. Complaint reportedly involves more. It isn’t legal to sell out your country for personal gain. As I’ve said before, House should open impeachment investigation
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) September 24, 2019
Trump has since stated that he will release a transcript of the call, but some lawmakers have stated that the formal complaint needs to be reviewed as well.
