This archive report was first published on 22 December 2019.
As the US Senate prepares for a trial on the impeachment of President Donald Trump, the President has largely ignored the proceedings, instead rallying young conservatives at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
On Friday, Trump denounced his impeachment on Twitter, vowing to seek vindication in the Senate. He tweeted, 'I never did anything wrong. Read the Transcripts. A Democrat Hoax!'
Trump's comments come as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said that Democrats will not deliver the two approved articles of impeachment to the Senate until they agree to fair procedures for the trial. Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has stated that the two sides 'remain at an impasse.'
Before arriving at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump also blasted a conservative Christian magazine, Christianity Today, for publishing an editorial calling for his removal from office. The magazine's editor, Mark Galli, wrote that Trump had tried to coerce a foreign leader to discredit one of his political opponents.
Trump responded by excoriating the magazine as 'far left,' saying it 'would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President.'
On Saturday, Trump appeared determined to dismiss the impeachment inquiry as a failed political attack by his rivals. 'There's no crime. There's no nothing. How do you impeach when you have no crime?' the President asked the crowd, referring briefly to Pelosi as 'crazy Nancy' and insisting that she had no case against him.
