{"articles":[{"reaction_config":[{"text":"Yes","color":"#624960","stance":"yes"},{"text":"Maybe","color":"#edb723","stance":"maybe"},{"text":"No","color":"#4ac6ec","stance":"no"}],"id":38902,"title":"Should the White House Participate in the Impeachment Hearings?","html_content":"

by Countable's Trump Impeachment Coverage | 12.2.19

What’s the story?

The White House has announced that neither President Donald Trump nor his attorneys will participate in Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearing, titled \"Constitutional Grounds for Presidential Impeachment.”
Democrats are trying to build a case that Trump leveraged military and diplomatic aid to Ukraine in exchange for investigations into 1) former vice president Joe Biden and his son, Hunter 2) a debunked conspiracy theory alleging Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.
In a letter to Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), White House counsel to the president, Pat Cipollone, wrote:

\"We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings. More importantly, an invitation to an academic discussion with law professors does not begin to provide the President with an semblance of a fair process. Accordingly, under the current circumstances, we do not intend to participate in your Wednesday hearing.\"

As he departed the White House en route to London Monday, Trump complained of the Democrats holding hearings while he was attending a NATO conference.
“The Democrats, the radical leftist Democrats, the do-nothing Democrats decided when I’m going to NATO — this was set up a year ago — that when I’m going to NATO, that was the exact time,” Trump told reporters.

“This is one of the most important journeys that we make as president, and for them to be doing this and saying this and putting impeachment on the table, which is a hoax to begin with…”

A reporter asked Trump why he wasn’t sending his lawyers to the hearing, as they weren’t heading to a NATO conference.

“Because the whole thing is a hoax. Everybody knows it.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, four constitutional scholars — three chosen by Democrats, one by Republicans — will testify on the standards for impeachment.

What do you think?

Should the White House participate in impeachment hearings? Take action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

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