DEMS/IMPEACHMENT/NANCY PELOSI/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “On the eve of his likely impeachment, President Donald Trump has opted to act as his own defense lawyer. In a six-page, stream-of-consciousness diatribe sent to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and released by the White House on Tuesday [12-17-19] afternoon, Trump denounced the Democrats’ two articles of impeachment — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — as ‘not recognizable under any standard of Constitutional theory,’ engaging with a process the White House had until now spurned in protest. Crafted more like one of his signature tweetstorms than a legal document, the letter was written ‘for the purpose of history and to put my thoughts on a permanent and indelible record,’ according to the president. Replete with grammatical errors, odd capitalizations and language rarely seen in official White House documents, it castigates Pelosi for ‘declaring open war on American democracy’ and ‘offending Americans of faith’ in what Trump called an ‘election-nullification scheme.’”
–Natasha Bertrand, “Trump presents his own impeachment defense,” Politico, December 17, 2019 6:26 pm