Donald Trump labels impeachment efforts ‘a coup’

As impeachment talk reaches fever pitch, Donald Trump has lashed out again on Twitter in another dramatic escalation.

Donald Trump has escalated his war of words with the Democrats, labelling ongoing impeachment efforts as “a coup”.

It comes days after the US President quoted a Fox News contributor warning of “civil war” should he be impeached and removed from office over allegations he asked Ukraine to investigate his political rival Joe Biden.

“As I learn more and more each day, I am coming to the conclusion that what is taking place is not an impeachment, it is a COUP, intended to take away the Power of the People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!” Mr Trump tweeted this morning.

....People, their VOTE, their Freedoms, their Second Amendment, Religion, Military, Border Wall, and their God-given rights as a Citizen of The United States of America!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 1, 2019

In April, Mr Trump slammed Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election as “an attempted coup”, saying it was like something that would happen in a “third world country”.

Over the past year he has also tweeted quotes from Republican Representative Pete King, former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, former CIA officer Bryan Dean Wright and Fox News hosts Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo using the word “coup”.

Mr Trump is facing the most serious prospect of impeachment since he took office over the July phone call with Ukraine’s President, which became the subject of a secret CIA whistleblower complaint.

A former adviser to Mr Trump earlier on Tuesday described the scandal as “far worse” than Richard Nixon’s Watergate. The former president resigned in 1974 before the House could impeach him.

“Nixon was a patriot,” law professor J.W. Verret said on CNN. “Of all the crazy things he did, he never would have accepted help from a foreign power for his own personal interest in an election, particularly one that would compromise the US’ strategic interests. This is much worse and I think momentum continues toward impeachment.”

One of Mr Trump’s staunchest defenders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has said he would have “no choice” but to consider articles of impeachment if the House approved them.

But House and Senate Republicans have also raised questions about the unidentified whistleblower, who Mr Trump has demanded to meet, and the circumstances around the complaint coming to light.

According to The Federalist, a number of Trump allies separately wrote to the Intelligence Community Inspector General on Monday demanding answers about recent revisions to the whistleblower complaint form, which removed the requirement for “first-hand evidence” of wrongdoing.

The whistleblower stated that he was “not a direct witness to most of the events described” but instead relayed information obtained from “officials” and media reports, something Mr Trump and his allies have used to discredit the complaint.

Australia has been drawn into an international scandal after it emerged that Donald Trump asked Scott Morrison to ‘assist’ in discrediting the Mueller inquiry. Picture: Saul Loeb/AFP

Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley on Tuesday broke with his colleagues, however, defending the whistleblower and saying the lack of first-hand knowledge did not invalidate the report.

“This person appears to have followed the whistleblower protection laws and ought to be heard out and protected. We should always work to respect whistleblowers’ requests for confidentiality,” Mr Grassley said in a statement.

“Complaints based on second-hand information should not be rejected out of hand, but they do require additional leg work to get at the facts and evaluate the claim’s credibility.”

Late on Monday, the ICIG issued a rare press release addressing questions around the complaint form revision, which was first highlighted on Twitter by researcher Stephen McIntyre and reported on by The Federalist last week.

Mr Trump had seized on that report, which suggested co-ordination in the intelligence community, tweeting a link over the weekend and writing, “WOW, they got caught. End the Witch Hunt now!”

On Monday, he wrote, “WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT? DRAIN THE SWAMP!”

In the lengthy three-page statement, the ICIG admitted that the form was changed after the whistleblower submitted his complaint, but said it determined it was “both urgent and appeared credible”.

According to the ICIG, the whistleblower filled out the original form and “in fact checked two relevant boxes”, one stating that, “I have personal and/or direct knowledge of events or records involved” and another stating that, “Other employees have told me about events or records involved”.

Former Donald Trump aide George Papadopoulos claims he was a victim of Australian, UK and US spying ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Picture: Peter Mitchell/AAP

The ICIG explained that the old form contained incorrect information. “Although the form requests information about whether the complainant possesses first-hand knowledge about the matter about which he or she is lodging the complaint, there is no such requirement set forth in the statute,” the statement said.

“In the process of reviewing and clarifying those forms, and in response to recent press inquiries regarding the instant whistleblower complaint, the ICIG understood that certain language in those forms and, more specifically, the informational materials accompanying the forms, could be read — incorrectly — as suggesting that whistleblowers must possess first-hand information in order to file an urgent concern complaint with the congressional intelligence committees.”

This week, Australia was dragged into the mess after it emerged Mr Trump had personally phoned Scott Morrison to push him to help Attorney-General William Barr show that the Mueller investigation had “corrupt and partisan origins”.

Alexander Downer, Australia’s high commissioner to the UK, sparked the FBI’s 2016 counterintelligence probe into the Trump campaign after he relayed details of a London meeting with campaign aide George Papadopoulos to the US.

Mr Trump first flagged he wanted to get to the bottom of Australia’s role in May, telling reporters he had “declassified everything” for Mr Barr and that “I hope he looks at the UK and I hope he looks at Australia, and I hope he looks at Ukraine”.

Not long after, Australia’s US ambassador Joe Hockey wrote to Mr Barr offering assistance. “The Australian Government will use its best endeavours to support your efforts in this matter,” he wrote.

“While Australia’s former High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, the Hon. Alexander Downer, is no longer employed by the Government, we stand ready to provide you with all the relevant information to support your inquiries.”

Labor has demanded Mr Morrison explain the details of the phone call. “I think Scott Morrison needs to be very clear about the circumstances around this phone call, what was said and whether any agreement was reached in terms of assistance,” Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Tuesday.

Former Labor leader Bill Shorten called for Mr Morrison to release the full transcript. “Prime Minister Morrison got a very warm, indeed special reception from President Trump,” he told reporters in Adelaide. “Mr Morrison needs to clean up the perception that perhaps the special reception was returned for special favours done.”

Mr Albanese this morning again called for the PM to give straight answers rather than dismissing the issue. “The Prime Minister needs to make a full statement and not say this is just gossip, not give one of his usual prevarications that we see from this government,” he told reporters in Queensland. “Ducking and weaving, this Prime Minister. He’s loose with the truth.”

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— with AAP