Updated at 6:51 p.m. ET
Democrats in the House took the next step toward impeachment on Monday with the presentation of what they call the evidence of President Trump’s improper conduct in the Ukraine affair.
“President Trump’s persistent and continuing effort to coerce a foreign country to help him cheat to win an election is a clear and present danger to our free and fair elections and to our national security,” said Daniel Goldman, the Democratic staff counsel who presented the Democrats’ case in the Judiciary Committee hearing.
Goldman, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, presented evidence congressional investigators had gathered about what he called Trump’s “months-long scheme to solicit foreign help in his 2020 reelection campaign, withholding official acts from the government of Ukraine in order to coerce and secure political interference in our domestic affairs.”
Democrats said they believe the case for taking action is obvious.
“The evidence shows that Donald J. Trump, the president of the United States, has put himself before his country,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York said in his opening statement. “He has violated his most basic responsibilities to the people. He has broken his oath.”
Republican ranking member Doug Collins of Georgia argued that Democrats are pursuing impeachment because of a “personal vendetta.”
“They can’t get over the fact that Donald J. Trump is president of the United States,” Collins said, “and they don’t think they have a candidate who can beat [him]. It’s all a show.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., confirmed last week that she and her lieutenants have decided to draft articles of impeachment against President Trump. So now, the Judiciary Committee says it must first receive the Intelligence Committee’s report formally and then assess what charges to prefer.
‘Read the Transcripts!’
During the hearing, President Trump asked his Twitter followers to read the account of the phone call he had on July 25 with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“Read the Transcripts!” he wrote.