Pelosi Announces Impeachment Inquiry; Liz Cheney Responds
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced the House is moving forward with an official impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
Pelosi made the announcement Tuesday from the speaker's office at the Capitol saying "no one is above the law."
The move puts the Democratic speaker's stamp on the investigations that have been underway in the House.
Calls for an impeachment inquiry have intensified following reports that Trump may have sought a foreign government's help in his reelection bid.
Pelosi says the president "must be held accountable."
Pelosi had for months resisted calls to start the impeachment process. But the dynamic changed this week as more members of her caucus came out in support, including Democrats from swing districts.
Wyoming's lone U.S. Representative responded to the announcement, calling impeachment efforts a partisan attack on Trump.
"For months, Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats have careened from justification to justification, looking for any excuse to begin impeachment proceedings," Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney said in a prepared statement. "Since the president was sworn in, the Democrats have repeatedly attempted to overturn the results of the election and discard the votes of 63 million Americans who voted for President Trump."
Cheney added that Pelosi is "walking away" from "even the pretense of evidence."
Democrats are demanding information about whether Trump improperly pressured the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden and his son, partly by withholding foreign aid. Trump insists he did nothing wrong and said he will release an unredacted transcript of a call with Ukraine's leader on Wednesday.