The President of the United States, President Donald Trump, is doing everything possible, to make sure he does not get impeached, as the impeachment hearing process against him begins on Wednesday.
As the impeachment hearing proceedings opened on Wednesday 13th November 2019, the White House released a video of an angry Mr Trump telling Americans “we’re fighting to drain the swamp”.
In the 38-second rant, Mr Trump said: “What’s going on now is the single greatest scam in the history of American politics.
“The Democrats wanna take away your guns, they wanna take away your healthcare, they wanna take away your vote, they wanna take away your freedom, they wanna take away your judges. They wanna take away everything.
“We can never let this happen. We’re fighting to drain the swamp and that’s exactly what I’m doing, and you see why we have to do it.
“Because our country is at stake like never before. It’s all very simple, they are trying to stop me because I’m fighting for you, and I’ll never let that happen.”
The start of the hearing saw a top diplomat testify for the first time that Mr Trump was overheard asking about “the investigations” that he wanted Ukraine to pursue that are central to the impeachment hearing inquiry.
According to standard news reports William Taylor, the lead US diplomat in Ukraine, said his staff told him they overheard Mr Trump speaking on the phone to another diplomat, ambassador Gordon Sondland, at a restaurant the day after Mr Trump’s July 25 phone call with the new president of Ukraine that sparked the impeachment hearing inquiry.
The staff could hear Mr Trump on the phone asking about “the investigations,” and Mr Sondland told the president that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward, Mr Taylor testified.
At its core, the inquiry stems from the July 25 phone call with Ukraine’s newly elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, when Mr Trump asked him for “a favour.”
Mr Trump wanted the Ukraine government to investigate Democrats in the 2016 election and his potential 2020 rival, Joe Biden, while holding as leverage military aid that the young democracy relies on as it confronts an aggressive Russia.