Democrats say impeachment rules for Trump same as they were for Nixon and Clinton

After a historic vote in the US House of Representatives that approved rules for the next steps in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, Democrats denied accusations by Republicans that the rules are unfair. 

US Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat serving for California's 28th congressional district and chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Thursday the impeachment process rules for Trump are the same as they were for former Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.

"The rules are very much the same as they were during the Nixon impeachment, during the Clinton impeachment," Schiff told "CBS Evening News" anchor Norah O'Donnell.

"All they have to argue is process and even the president has acknowledged that's a failure."

The House of Representatives passed a resolution on Thursday to formally proceed with the impeachment inquiry against Trump, ushering in a new phase of the investigation that poses the greatest threat to Trump’s presidency to date.

The lower chamber of Congress, which is controlled by Democrats, passed the measure largely along party lines, 232 to 196, to formalize the process. Only two Democrats, along with all Republicans, voted against the resolution.

Republican members of the House denounced the resolution as a "Soviet-style" nature of the investigation. 

"Maybe in the Soviet Union, you do things like this where only you make the rules, where you reject the ability for the person you're accusing to even be in the room," said House Minority Whip Steve Scalise.

Schiff said he's also concerned about "the president's threats" to the whistleblower who brought attention to Trump's call with Ukraine's leader.

"I've made it clear to all the colleagues on our committee that we will not be a part of and we will not permit questioning that is designed to out this whistleblower so that the president can exact political retribution," Schiff said. "I would hope that members on both sides of the aisle would be speaking out about the need to protect whistleblowers, this one and others."

PressTV-US House votes to formalize Trump’s impeachment inquiry

The US House of Representatives in Congress has passed a resolution to formally proceed with the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump.

Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry in September after a whistleblower alleged the Republican president pressured Ukraine to investigate his main Democratic rival, former US vice president Joe Biden.

That request by Trump, and accusations he conditioned nearly $400 million in military aid to Ukraine on the political favor, form the basis of the impeachment inquiry that now threatens his presidency.

House Democrats say Trump has abused his office for personal gain and jeopardized national security by asking Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy to to investigate Biden and his son, Hunter, who had served as a director for Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

A poll conducted in early October showed that most Democrats wanted to impeach Trump, even if it increased the prospect for the re-election the Republican president in the 2020 US presidential election.

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