USA / Greatest witch hunt in the history of politics: Trump on impeachment move

Washington: Outgoing United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday referred to the efforts of the Democratic Party to impeach him for the second time as the “continuation of the greatest witch hunt” in the history of politics, The Washington Post reported.

The Democrats had on Monday formally introduced an article of impeachment against Trump, charging him with “incitement to insurrection” over his role in inciting the violence at the Capitol last week. The vote on the impeachment may happen on Wednesday.

Trump called the move “absolutely ridiculous”. “This impeachment is causing tremendous anger, and you’re doing it, and it’s really a terrible thing that they’re doing,” he told reporters while leaving for Texas. “For Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to continue on this path, I think it’s causing tremendous danger to our country, and it’s causing tremendous anger.”

He also refused to take responsibility for the violence that took place at the US Capitol on January 7, claiming that his speech to his supporters before the incident was “totally appropriate”. He had urged his supporters to march to the Capitol, as the house convened to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.

Trump said that his speech had been carefully analysed. “Everybody just thought it was totally appropriate.”

He also hit out at microblogging site Twitter and the other social media sites that banned him for policy violations. “They are making a catastrophic mistake,” Trump said. “They’re dividing and divisive, and they’re showing something that I’ve been predicting for a long time.”

On January 7, hundreds of supporters of Trump stormed the Capitol complex in Washington DC, and clashed with the police as members of the Congress met to certify the results of the 2020 presidential elections, which Biden won. Five people died in the violence. At least 68 were arrested.

The incident triggered shock across the world. Several White House officials tendered resignations following the incident, while the demands for Trump’s removal from the top office grew.

After the violence however, Trump conceded defeat to Biden. For months, he peddled election conspiracy theories and claimed that the presidential poll had been rigged.

The Democrats had moved to impeach Trump in 2019 also for pressuring the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to dig up political dirt on Biden. He was, however, acquitted by the Senate, where the Republican Party had the majority.