Trump campaign: Democrats pursuing impeachment because they don’t have ‘viable’ 2020 candidate

President Trump’s campaign on Tuesday knocked the House’s announcement of two articles of impeachment against Trump, continuing to describe the process as a political attack. 

“For months, Nancy Pelosi said she wouldn’t move forward on impeachment because it was too divisive and it needed bipartisan support. Well, it is divisive and only the Democrats are pushing it, but she’s doing it anyway,” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement, shortly after House Democrats unveiled the articles of impeachment.

“Americans don’t agree with this rank partisanship, but Democrats are putting on this political theater because they don’t have a viable candidate for 2020 and they know it,” he added.

Trump also called the process “sheer Political Madness!” in a Tuesday morning tweet.

“To Impeach a President who has proven through results, including producing perhaps the strongest economy in our country’s history, to have one of the most successful presidencies ever, and most importantly, who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness!” Trump tweeted.

To Impeach a President who has proven through results, including producing perhaps the strongest economy in our country’s history, to have one of the most successful presidencies ever, and most importantly, who has done NOTHING wrong, is sheer Political Madness! #2020Election

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019 

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel similarly hit the Democrat’s decision, accusing them of trying to “overthrow a duly-elected president.” 

“[Speaker] Nancy Pelosi can invent whatever false charges she wants, but the American people see this for what it is: yet another partisan attempt to overthrow a duly-elected President and rob voters of the chance to re-elect him in 2020,” McDaniel said in a statement. 

The charges brought by Democrats include claims that Trump abused the power of his office and that the obstructed Congress in the impeachment inquiry. 

Trump and many Republicans have long railed the process as a partisan attack aimed at undermining the 2016 election, but Democrats have defended it as necessary to protect a fair 2020 election. 

The allegations central to the articles of impeachment surround Trump’s communication with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Democrats allege that Trump refused to meet with Zelensky and threatened to withhold foreign aid unless the country announced an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, a top 2020 Democratic contender, and his son, Hunter, who worked on the board of the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings.