Democrats to lay articles of impeachment, call Trump 'risk to country

In a new development in US President Donald Trump's impeachment case, House Democrats on December 9 laid the groundwork for articles of impeachment calling Trump a danger to the country in the closed-door hearing. Earlier on December 8, the US House Judiciary Committee chairman told the media that if the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump were given to a jury then he would be declared guilty within just three minutes. Nadler had also said that he had evidence that Trump has put personal interests above those of his country in dealing with Ukraine. The House Democrats aim to attain the conclusion of the hearings by the end of this year.

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On Monday, in his opening remarks, Nadler said that the integrity of the upcoming elections is at stake and that nothing could be more urgent. Nadler reportedly reiterated his accusations on the US President describing him as a "continuing risk to the country". He said that Trump puts himself before the country and has welcomed foreign interference in the Elections in 2016 and demanded the same in 2020 and got caught. Nadler added that Trump's "conduct is clearly impeachable" and that the committee will proceed accordingly. 

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Republicans defend Trump

On the other hand, Republicans in the House Committee defended Trump using parliamentary maneuvers, process complaints, and occasional theatrics to disrupt the hearing and accuse Democrats of abusing the impeachment process in pursuit of a political vendetta. Republican F James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., reportedly criticized the Democrats accusing them of abusing their power as they were subpoenaing phone records of some of Trump's associates. He drew an inference to veteran Republican Joe McCarthy who earlier made accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence saying that even McCarthy seemed like a piker as compared to what the Democrats were doing by involving electronic surveillance.

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There was no significant development in the hearings on Monday and the Republicans and Democrats kept debating on the case. The exact articles of impeachment are yet to be laid by the Committee. Yet the Justice Department released a report that undercut Trump's attempt to cast himself as a victim of a long-running attempt by establishment figures to delegitimize his presidency. Earlier on Sunday, the US President took to twitter calling the House Committee hearings "witch hunt", "hoax" and "sham". 

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