Partisan Acrimony As U.S. House Starts Trump Impeachment Debate

Opening the debate on December 18 in Washington, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi depicted Republican President Donald Trump as a threat to national security who abused his office for personal political gain and jeopardized the integrity of the presidential election in 2020. Republicans, represented by House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins (Georgia), insisted the only reason the Democrats pursued the impeachment was because they fear they will lose the presidential election. Trump faces two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, based on allegations that he withheld military aid to Ukraine to press Kyiv to publicly announce it was launching an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son's activities in Ukraine while Biden was in office.