167 House Democrats — more than 2/3 of the 235 member caucus — say they now back some type of impeachment action against Trump
By Lisa Mascaro, Mary Clare Jalonick and Jonathan Lemire
Published Sep 24, 2019 at 3:54 AM | Updated 7 minutes ago
Democrats lined up in ever greater
numbers Tuesday urging an impeachment probe of resident Donald Trump,
pushed to action by his phone call with Ukraine's new leader and what
Trump may or may not have said about corruption, frozen U.S. millions
and Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump said he would release a transcript
of the call on Wednesday.
Attention
focused on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has resisted calls for an
impeachment inquiry for months. But as more members of her caucus
pressed for a probe — including crucial moderates in political swing
districts — the speaker planned to huddle with her members late Tuesday
afternoon.
Advisers said she would make a statement on the path forward
at 5 p.m. EDT.
Pelosi is expected
to announce she backs a formal impeachment inquiry, according to two
Democratic sources close to her, NBC News reported.
In
an appearance ahead of that meeting, Pelosi sidestepped questions about
whether she believed Trump's actions were impeachable, but she said it
would be wrong for the president to ask a foreign leader for help
investigating Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential
nomination.
"We don't ask foreign governments to help us in our election," Pelosi said.
At
issue is a summer phone call Trump had with Ukraine's president, which
came to Congress' attention through a whistleblower complaint. Trump has
insisted he did nothing wrong in the call, but has suggested he raised
Biden and his son Hunter as part of discussions over corruption in
Ukraine — despite no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of either man.
Moments before Pelosi spoke, Trump tweeted that he had authorized the release on Wednesday of a transcript of the call.
"You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call," Trump said
.
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