A gang of loyal Republican congress members stormed a secure briefing room to stop a Democratic-led impeachment hearing, claiming that a "Soviet-style" process was underway. Trump, is fighting for survival as the impeachment inquiry progresses, even before he can focus on 2020 re-election. Some of them even brought mobile phones along as they tried storming into Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. Earlier in the week, Trump had urged Republicans to 'fight for him'.
The display delayed the testimony of Laura Cooper, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, for five hours. She resumed giving her statement to Congress later in the afternoon. The Republicans insisted that the press should be allowed in the room'.
Commenting on Republicans trying to barge-in on the hearing, Republican Jim Jordan indicated that they were merely fed up with the lack of transparency in the inquiry.
The media and everyone else in Washington, in the meanwhile, have argued over what exactly Trump's 2016 political opponent Hillary Clinton meant when she rambled about Russia's "grooming" of a third-party candidate in 2020. And Democrat Barack Obama's former national security advisor Susan Rice went on air to brand a senior Republican senator and Trump booster, Lindsey Graham, a "piece of shit."
The engine driving the DC train, are serious charges that Trump is abusing the position of power. Dark details, however, are emerging from initial rounds of testimony in Congress.
The President has been accused of running a secret scheme to get Ukraine's president to initiate a corruption investigation aimed at discrediting Joe Biden, a top opponent in the 2020 polls. And to prod the Ukrainians, Trump allegedly withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in US military aid meant to help the former Soviet state fight Russian-backed separatists.
This, according to Democrats, is a classic impeachable offence. Trump responded on Tuesday by saying that this was "a lynching," and in this case, he was the victim.
Detailed testimony to Congress on Thursday from the US acting ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, painted a picture of Trump recklessly pursuing his political vendetta.
The point man in these alleged manoeuvrers was former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has since reinvented himself as Trump's colourful but often erratic fixer.
Allegedly helping him was a Trump-friendly trio of officials: the US ambassador to the European Union, the special Ukraine envoy and the energy secretary. According to Taylor, the trio's goal was to strongarm fledgeling Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky into announcing a probe of the Biden family on CNN.
Trump's loyal former attorney general Matthew Whitaker told Fox this week that "abuse of power is not a crime." According to one of his lawyers, Trump is immune to investigation even if he shot someone at Fifth Avenue as he's president.
President Trump, in the meantime, expressed his concern over the level of tension between India and Pakistan. He discussed Kashmir directly in his meetings with Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Imran Khan, the official said on condition of anonymity. A US State Department official said that the US will continue to encourage an atmosphere that allows for constructive Indo-Pak dialogue.
Referring to the 'Howdy Modi' event in Houston in September, the official said this demonstrated the very close partnership and friendship that the US has with India.
