AGL 38.20 Increased By ▲ 0.21 (0.55%)
AIRLINK 211.50 Decreased By ▼ -4.03 (-1.87%)
BOP 9.48 Decreased By ▼ -0.32 (-3.27%)
CNERGY 6.52 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-3.98%)
DCL 9.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.17 (-1.85%)
DFML 38.23 Decreased By ▼ -0.73 (-1.87%)
DGKC 96.86 Decreased By ▼ -3.39 (-3.38%)
FCCL 36.55 Decreased By ▼ -0.15 (-0.41%)
FFBL 88.94 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFL 14.98 Increased By ▲ 0.49 (3.38%)
HUBC 131.00 Decreased By ▼ -3.13 (-2.33%)
HUMNL 13.44 Decreased By ▼ -0.19 (-1.39%)
KEL 5.51 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-3.16%)
KOSM 6.87 Decreased By ▼ -0.45 (-6.15%)
MLCF 44.90 Decreased By ▼ -0.97 (-2.11%)
NBP 59.34 Decreased By ▼ -1.94 (-3.17%)
OGDC 230.00 Decreased By ▼ -2.59 (-1.11%)
PAEL 39.20 Decreased By ▼ -1.53 (-3.76%)
PIBTL 8.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.20 (-2.33%)
PPL 200.00 Decreased By ▼ -3.34 (-1.64%)
PRL 39.10 Decreased By ▼ -1.71 (-4.19%)
PTC 27.00 Decreased By ▼ -1.31 (-4.63%)
SEARL 103.32 Decreased By ▼ -5.19 (-4.78%)
TELE 8.40 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-3.89%)
TOMCL 35.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.48 (-1.34%)
TPLP 13.46 Decreased By ▼ -0.38 (-2.75%)
TREET 25.30 Increased By ▲ 0.92 (3.77%)
TRG 64.50 Increased By ▲ 3.35 (5.48%)
UNITY 34.90 Increased By ▲ 0.06 (0.17%)
WTL 1.77 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (2.91%)
BR100 12,110 Decreased By -137 (-1.12%)
BR30 37,723 Decreased By -662.1 (-1.72%)
KSE100 112,415 Decreased By -1509.6 (-1.33%)
KSE30 35,508 Decreased By -535.7 (-1.49%)

WASHINGTON: More than half of House Democrats support launching impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump, media tallies showed Friday, a milestone that progressives hope will move Speaker Nancy Pelosi off of her resistance to opening an inquiry.

Of the 235 voting Democrats, 118 have publicly stated their support for beginning the procedures aimed at removing Trump from office, with the symbolic threshold being crossed when congressman Ted Deutch of Florida came out in favor on Thursday.

Momentum has steadily built in the days since former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before Congress about his two-year investigation of Russian election interference and potential obstruction of justice by Trump.

Deutch became the 23rd Democratic lawmaker to support the proceedings since Mueller went before Congress and, in Deutch's words, "confirmed the damning conclusions of his report."

The Mueller report details how Russia interfered in "sweeping and  systematic fashion" in Trump's favor during the 2016 US presidential election campaign.

It sets out how the Trump campaign welcomed that help and repeatedly lied about it.

Democrats argue that Mueller also provided evidence for 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by the president.

Surpassing the 50 percent threshold could be key because Pelosi has repeatedly stated her opposition to impeachment in part because the bulk of her caucus remained against launching proceedings.

Instead she prefers letting the several ongoing House investigations of Trump and his administration take their course.

In June, when Pelosi was asked whether she would support an impeachment inquiry if a majority of Democrats backed it, she declined to answer a hypothetical.

"It's not even close in our caucus," Pelosi said, while adding that impeachment was "not off the table."

Pelosi has regularly noted that impeaching Trump would almost certainly lead to acquittal in the Senate, where Republicans hold a majority, and allow Trump to claim vindication and fire up his core supporters as he seeks re-election.

Some House Democrats argue that it is their constitutional duty to take action when they see evidence of presidential wrongdoing, regardless of the political ramifications.

Meanwhile congressman Will Hurd, the only African-American Republican in the House and the only Republican representing a district on the US-Mexico border, announced he will not seek re-election in 2020.

Hurd joins five other Republicans, several of them in swing districts, who announced their retirements in the last two weeks, a blow to party efforts to reclaim the House majority.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Press), 2019
 

Comments

Comments are closed.