Democrats speed up march to impeachment over Trump-Ukraine call — live updates

CBSN

Democrats in Congress on Tuesday appeared ready to launch a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump over his administration’s refusal to hand over a whistleblower complaint and information related to other investigations, setting up a potentially dramatic constitutional clash just over a year before the presidential election.

One after another, Democrats from vulnerable House districts who had been resisting previous calls for impeachment came out in favor of initiating impeachment proceedings on Monday and Tuesday. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would be making an “announcement” on Tuesday afternoon after a meeting with the Democratic caucus.

The current furor stems from a call Mr. Trump made to the president of Ukraine in July, in which he admitted discussing Joe Biden in the context of fighting “corruption” in the country. Mr. Trump and his allies, in particular personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, have accused Biden of pushing for the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor while he was vice president in order to benefit his son. The prosecutor was widely seen as corrupt, and no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Biden has yet emerged.

The president directed his acting chief of staff to hold off on releasing nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine shortly before the call in July, according to a senior administration official with direct knowledge of the administration’s actions.

Mr. Trump, who is in New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, said he would release the transcript of the call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that is part of the whistleblower complaint.

“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call. No pressure and, unlike Joe Biden and his son, NO quid pro quo!” the president tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

That concession, however, appeared unlikely to temper Democrats’ demands for the complaint itself or to stave off a formal impeachment inquiry. Congressman Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said the whistleblower wants to testify before the committee. Schiff tweeted that the whistleblower’s testimony could come “as soon as this week.”