Trump attacks Dems, 'LameStream' media as impeachment nears public phase

United States President Donald Trump is intensifying his attacks against Democrats and the media, as an impeachment inquiry into his attempts to dig dirt on former Vice Presiden Joe Biden, a possible 2020 rival, nears its much-anticipated public phase.

Trump stands accused of asking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky during a phone call in June to give him all the available details about the dealings of Biden and his son, Hunter, in Ukraine in exchange for continuing US military aide to the country.

The Republican head of state took to twitter on Wednesday to vent his anger at the media, whom he rebranded as “Enemy of the People” for claiming that Trump has asked Attorney General William Barr to squash the Ukraine quid pro quo rumors.

“The story in the Amazon Washington Post, of course picked up by Fake News CNN, saying “President Trump asked for AG Barr to host a news conference clearing him on Ukraine,” is totally untrue and just another FAKE NEWS story with anonymous sources that don’t exist,” he wrote.

“The LameStream Media, which is The Enemy of the People, is working overtime with made up stories in order to drive dissension and distrust!” Trump further fumed.

Trump repeated the attacks during a rally in Louisiana later in the day, telling a large crowd of his supporters that “the crooked media have launched the deranged, delusional, destructive and hyper partisan impeachment witch hunt.”

He also repeated the accusations of quid pro quo against the Bidens and slammed the media for not giving it any coverage.

He said the Democrats’ “shameful conduct” had created an “angry majority” that will vote them out of Congress in 2020.

The attacks came only days before the Democrats in the House of Representatives take their impeachment push to another level by holding the first open impeachment hearings that will come as soon as the next week.

William Taylor, who serves as Washington's top diplomat for Ukraine, and deputy assistant secretary of state George Kent will be the first high-ranking officials to publicly testify in the case next Wednesday.

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House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, the Democratic representative leading the process, said the public phase would let people see the “illicit” nature of Trump’s work.

They will be able to see "the degree to which the president enlisted whole departments of government in the illicit aim of trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent," Schiff said.

Taylor has already given a closed-door testimony, where he bolstered the principal accusation against Trump which is abusing the office of US president by withholding military aid in order to force Kiev into investigating Biden.

Kent has also taken part in a private hearing.

Schiff has already begun releasing transcripts of the secret witness testimonies but a public hearing is said to have a more dramatic impact on the public.

Schiff said the hearings let the American people "evaluate the witnesses for themselves, to make their own determinations about the credibility of the witnesses, but also learn first-hand about the facts of the president's misconduct."

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