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Sharply Divergent Views Offered on Historic Impeachment Hearings

Ken Bredemeier

   Historic impeachment hearings targeting U.S. President Donald Trump
   opened Wednesday in Washington, with key lawmakers offering sharply
   contradictory views whether Trump abused his office to help himself
   politically.

   Congressman Adam Schiff, the leader of the Democratic effort to impeach
   Trump, accused the president in his opening statement of pressuring
   Ukraine to open an investigation of one of his chief 2020 Democratic
   challengers, former Vice President Joe Biden, before Trump would
   release $391 million in U.S. military aid Kyiv wanted to help it fight
   pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.

   "The matter is as simple, and as terrible as that," said Schiff,
   chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. "If this is not
   impeachable conduct, what is?"

   But a staunch Trump defender, Republican Congressman Devin Nunes,
   called the hearing a "televised theatrical performance" and an
   "impeachment process in search of a crime." He belittled secret
   hearings over the last several weeks and called the release of
   transcripts of officials who have testified against Trump a "carefully
   orchestrated media smear campaign."

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