Pelosi accuses Trump of 'cover up' in Ukraine scandal
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI, SAYING:
"Whatever other explanation there might be, an explanation is also that is a cover up."
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi minced no words on Thursday - accusing President Trump of trying to hide a conversation in which he pressed Ukraine's President to investigate Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden.
The details of that phone call only came to light as a result of a whistleblower, who claimed the White House moved a record of the conversation to a server with higher security clearance.
Why?????
Pelosi has a theory.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI (DEMOCRAT), SAYING:
"There are actions that are a cover up. Yea. When you take, when you have a system of electronic storage for information that is specifically for national security purposes and you have something that is self-serving to the president politically and decide you might not want people to know and you hide it someplace else that's a cover up."
That, according to Pelosi, adds to what she called the president's "lawlessness," which left the Democratic-led House with no other choice but to open an inquiry of impeachment this week.
But the leading Republican in the House disagrees. Following Thursday's release of the whistleblower's complaint, a day after the White House transcript of the call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was made public, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy claimed the president is in the clear.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH): HOUSE MINORITY LEADER KEVIN MCCARTHY (REPUBLICAN), SAYING:
"They're talking about impeaching a sitting president that they have no crime for...The transcripts give you what President Trump and what the president of Ukraine said. It's for the American people to see and there is nothing in there that is impeachable."
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and took out his frustrations over the rise of impeachment talk on the Democrats.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:
"What these guys are doing, Democrats are doing to this country, is a disgrace and it shouldn't be allowed. There should be a way of stopping it - maybe legally through the courts but they are going to tie up our country...They don't want to talk about anything because they are fixated on this and Nancy Pelosi has been hijacked by the radical left and everybody knows it."
No president has ever been removed from office through impeachment. Democrats control the House and Trump's fellow Republicans control the Senate.
