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Analysis carried out by Washington Post shows that a majority of House lawmakers said they plan to support at least one article of impeachment against President Trump even as the president railed against the process in an extraordinary letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Although Republicans insist on their support for the embattled president Trump, the vote is expected later today. In his six-page letter to Pelosi, Trump accused Democrats of “declaring open war on American Democracy.” Pelosi later sent a letter to House Democrats urging them to join her in voting to impeach Trump. The developments came as the House Rules Committee was meeting to set the parameters for the historic debate expected Wednesday over whether the president’s conduct toward Ukraine violated his oath of office. At the heart of the Democrats’ case is the allegation that Trump tried to leverage a White House meeting and military aid, sought by Ukraine to combat Russian military aggression, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a probe of an unfounded theory that Kyiv conspired with Democrats to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Read the full article

While United States President, Donald Trump battles a whistleblowers revelation that he attempted to get the Ukrainian president to investigate a political rival, a second whistleblower has come forward about the same allegations. Mark Zaid, lawyer to the whistleblower said the person, also an intelligence official, has first-hand knowledge of some of the allegations involving the initial whistleblower complaint, which triggered impeachment proceedings against the Republican president. The second official has been interviewed by the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, Zaid said. The first whistleblower complaint, filed with the inspector general on Aug. 12, cited information received from half a dozen U.S. officials expressing concern that Trump was using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country as he seeks re-election a second term in 2020. It also alleged that Trump leveraged $400 million in aid to secure a promise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate a Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, and his son Hunter Biden, who served as a director on a Ukrainian energy company. “I can confirm that my firm and my team represent multiple whistleblowers in connection to the underlying August 12, 2019, disclosure to the Intelligence Community Inspector General,” Andrew Bakaj, a second lawyer, said on Twitter. Mark Zaid said on Twitter that the second whistleblower “also made a protected disclosure under the law and cannot be retaliated against.” He told ABC News earlier the second official has been interviewed by the inspector general. Confirmation of a second whistleblower followed stirrings of discontent within Trump’s own Republican Party after he called on China on Friday to investigate Biden’s son, who had business dealings in China. Republican U.S. Senators Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse and Susan Collins expressed concerns about Trump reaching out to foreign countries to help him in his 2020 re-election bid. However, other Republicans stood firmly in support of Trump on Sunday, echoing the president’s insistence that the call was not significant. Trump railed against the “do-nothing” Democrats’ impeachment on Sunday on Twitter with a string of retweets from supporters, touting his high approval ratings among Republicans and reprising his criticism of Romney. The telephone call with Zelenskiy, a summary of which was released by the White House, and the whistleblower complaint prompted House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to launch an impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24. She said Trump’s attempts to solicit foreign interference jeopardized U.S. election integrity and threatened national security. Democrats said any finding that Trump withheld taxpayer money, already approved by Congress to help Ukraine, in exchange for a favor from Zelenkiy would strengthen the case against him. Trump has maintained there was no “quid pro quo” in his request of the Ukrainian president, but text messages released by congressional committees leading the inquiry showed otherwise. The committees released the texts involving Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Kurt Volker, after he testified behind closed doors on Thursday. The committees this week expect to hear from another U.S. diplomat, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, a committee official confirmed on Sunday. Sondland worked closely with Volker and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani on the Ukraine effort. Read the full article

Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were fiercely attacked by their moderate rivals in a debate late Tuesday between contenders for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election, which revealed ideological divides within the party..... Read the full article

Late Senator McCain defended Barack Obama when a woman called him " Arab" during their presidential campaign in 2009. See it live on : www.astoldpost.net #usdemocrats #politics #senatormccain