Impeachment talk stirs anger; Pelosi, Trump trade barbs

Washington, May 24

Democratic congressional leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday said Donald Trump was angry that her party was not rushing to impeach him, as the relationship reached new lows with the rivals trading crude personal barbs.

  It was the second straight day of a very public war of words between Trump and the speaker of the House of Representatives, who earlier questioned the President’s mental fitness for office and expressed hope that those close to Trump would stage an intervention “for the good of the country.”  Trump responded by branding Pelosi “crazy Nancy,” in what appeared to be the first time he ascribed a pejorative nickname to the woman who was his congressional nemesis.

The back-and-forth attacks are highlighting the bitter feud that has swelled since the release last month of the special counsel’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

According to Pelosi, Trump’s strategy is to get his opponents to commit themselves to impeachment — a process that would almost certainly pass in the House, and then fail in the Republican-controlled Senate, ultimately energising Trump’s core voters during his re-election bid.

“The White House is just crying out for impeachment,” she told journalists.Trump is “disappointed” that the Democrats are holding off for now, Pelosi said, even as they intensify congressional investigations into the president’s links to Russia and his alleged obstruction of justice — probes that Trump is trying to block. “It may take us to a place that is unavoidable in terms of impeachment or not, but we’re not at that place,” she said.  — AFP