Trump lashes out at Pelosi and Democrats ahead of impeachment vote

Trump lashed out at Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats who are calling for his impeachment ahead of the vote on Wednesday.

The US President accused House Democrats of ‘unconstitutional abuse of power’.

His attacks come on the eve of a historic House vote to impeach him in a fiery letter that the Democratic Speaker described as “sick”.

Aside from his usual string of Tweets, Trump sent a six-page missive to Pelosi and said that the Democrats’ actions amounted to “declaring open war on American democracy”.

Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the impeachment inquiry as a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats, said in the letter: “You dare to invoke the Founding Fathers  [...] yet your spiteful actions display unfettered contempt for America’s founding”.

Pelosi, the speaker of the House who launched the impeachment inquiry, described the letter as “ridiculous”.

In a separate letter, Pelosi told Democrats that the House would exercise its “most solemn powers” by holding the vote after concluding that Mr Trump had “abused his power for his own personal, political benefit” in addition to obstructing Congress.

“During this very prayerful moment in our nation’s history, we must honour our oath to support and defend our Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic,” she said.

The impeachment process started over a scandal that revealed that Trump had solicited foreign interference in the US electoral process after he pressed Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian president, to publicly launch an investigation into Joe Biden, the former US vice-president, and his son, Hunter Biden.

Republicans have responded that the Democrats are pursuing another “witch hunt”.

Trump tweeted on Wednesday: “Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG! A terrible Thing. Read the Transcripts. This should never happen to another President again. Say a PRAYER!”