Trump Compares Impeachment to a “Lynching”

The incendiary tweet came as a new poll showed that support for his removal from office reached a new high.

Yuri Gripas/ZUMA

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Shortly after a new poll showed that half of Americans now support his removal from office, President Donald Trump on Tuesday offered up a wildly inappropriate and offensive comparison:

The “lynching” description does not resonate with most Americans, who increasingly support Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. Even a handful of Republican lawmakers now back the probe. It does, however, come as the latest self-victimizing tantrum Trump has thrown in recent weeks, as key witnesses in the Ukraine scandal have ignored the White House’s demand for silence with testimony damning for Trump and his allies. And this time he did it by likening his political situation to the brutal murders of African Americans.

Those depositions continue with Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine, who is set to appear before House investigators today. Taylor, in text messages released by Democrats earlier this month, had called Trump’s Ukraine policy “crazy.”

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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