Trump says impeachment could help his electoral chances, still sends angry tweets
NEW YORK — Fifty-eight floors above Manhattan, President Donald Trump watched his legacy change and his political future grow more uncertain.
The product of Trump's norm-breaking presidency and Democrats' lingering anger over the outcome of the 2016 election, the impeachment inquiry has largely been welcomed by the Republican president's advisers, who believe it could backfire against Democrats. The president himself said the move could help his electoral chances, but he reacted in the moment with a cascade of angry tweets that accused Democrats of engaging in"a witch hunt" and"presidential harassment.
The revelations revolve in part around a July 25 phone call the president had with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Trump is said to have asked for help investigating Biden and his son Hunter. In the days before the call, Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400 million in military aid for Ukraine, prompting speculation that he was holding up the money as leverage for information on the Bidens. Trump has denied that charge but acknowledged he blocked the funds.
For nearly a year, the White House as an institution and Trump personally have been goading Democrats to open impeachment proceedings. They've refused document requests and ignored subpoenas from Congress, claiming broad executive privilege to prevent the testimony of administration officials and even of people who've never formally worked at the White House.
As word of the whistleblower complaint slowly made its way through the White House, initial concerns about what the president said on the call quickly gave way to the same sense of defiance that has defined the administration's interactions with Congress.
Most aides believe that Trump's vague, wink-wink style of speaking would not lend itself to the discovery of a smoking gun in the transcript. But it's possible the White House will authorize the release of the entire whistleblower complaint to Congress by the end of the week.
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