President Donald Trump accused Democrats of attempting a “coup” by launching an impeachment inquiry against him, The Hill reported.
“As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP,” Trump tweeted.
Trump said that the investigation into his alleged abuse of power is “intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!”
The impeachment inquiry against Trump was officially launched last week by House Democrats, and the action was mainly triggered by his latest scandal with the call to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he urged Zelensky to kick off an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
A rough transcript of the call between the two leaders was published by the White House, showing that Trump was demanding Zelensky to contact his personal lawyer and the attorney general in order to carry out the investigation of potential wrongdoing by Biden.
Last Tuesday, a whistleblower complaint was released which revealed how the White House limited access to the transcript in order to conceal the contents of the call.
Trump’s tweet on Tuesday mirrored the rhetoric he deployed during former special counsel Robert Mueller‘s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The president regularly decried the probe as a “witch hunt” and referred to it earlier this year as “a coup,” likening it to something that would happen in “a third world country.”
But Mueller’s report did not establish that Trump conspired with Russia, and it failed to deliver a verdict on whether he obstructed justice.
The Ukraine controversy represents a more urgent threat to Trump’s presidency, as Democrats have indicated they are prepared to move quickly toward impeachment. In response, Trump’s attacks on his critics have become increasingly hostile.
The president on Monday suggested House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who has been at the forefront of the impeachment inquiry, should be arrested for treason for his exaggerated description of Trump’s call with Zelensky.
Trump has also been fiercely critical of the whistleblower, deriding them as partisan and questioning whether they are loyal to the country.
The President said Monday that the White House is trying to find out who the whistleblower is, and he has claimed that he has the right to interview the individual, despite protections in place to keep the person’s identity anonymous.
Democrats and some Republicans have pushed back against Trump’s attacks on the whistleblower, saying the individual followed the proper protocols in filing their complaint.
“No one should be making judgments or pronouncements without hearing from the whistleblower first and carefully following up on the facts,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement on Tuesday. “Uninformed speculation wielded by politicians or media commentators as a partisan weapon is counterproductive and doesn’t serve the country.”
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