WASHINGTON • Thousands of demonstrators rallied and marched in their home states to show Congress that Americans in all 50 states support impeachment.
In the biggest display of support since a House impeachment inquiry into United States President Donald Trump's conduct began in late September, about 60 organisations coordinated more than 600 events across the country at which voters vowed to demand action from elected leaders.
Yesterday morning, activists also brought that message directly to Congress.
"Our goal is to show them the diversity that exists in the support for impeachment," said Mr Reggie Hubbard, congressional liaison and D.C. strategist for MoveOn, the lead organiser of the protests.
"We want them to look out across the country and realise this isn't partisan. The only ones making it partisan are congressional Republicans."
Tuesday's protests were collectively dubbed the "Nobody is Above the Law" demonstrations, and were coordinated by MoveOn.org, a group that got its start 21 years ago urging Republicans to end their pursuit of then President Bill Clinton's impeachment.
On Tuesday evening, protesters in snowy New England chanted "Dump Trump", while those marching in southern Florida brandished signs reading "Impeach Putin's Puppet".
Organisers said the nationwide protests - which took place from Hawaii to Maine - were to demonstrate to lawmakers that their constituents are behind them to defend the Constitution.
The House held a debate yesterday over whether Mr Trump's dealings with Ukraine violated his oath of office.
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Charges against Trump
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ABUSE OF POWER
In the impeachment context, abuse of power is generally defined as using the vast powers of the presidency for personal benefit.
Abuse of power is not specifically referred to as an impeachable offence in the US Constitution, which states that a president can be removed from office for "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours". But the founders of the United States intended the phrase "other high crimes and misdemeanours" to broadly encompass abuses of power, legal scholars said.
Professor Louis Michael Seidman of Georgetown University Law Centre said the core allegation against US President Donald Trump - that he withheld security aid to Ukraine to pressure it to announce investigations that would benefit him politically - was the sort of conduct the founders considered impeachable. "The US has a national security interest in Ukraine and it does appear that what the President was doing was putting that national security interest at risk in exchange for political benefits," said Prof Seidman. "If that is what happened, that is the core of what impeachment is about."
OBSTRUCTION OF CONGRESS
Democrats have also charged Mr Trump with obstruction of Congress based on his stonewalling of the House's impeachment inquiry.
The White House has refused to provide documents to congressional investigators and has instructed top advisers and government officials to defy subpoenas and refuse to testify.
Mr Trump's lawyers have argued that his refusal to cooperate with the impeachment investigation is justified because the process has been unfair to him.
REUTERS
House Democrats, who have led the charge on impeachment, allege that Mr Trump tried to leverage a White House meeting and military support, sought by Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate 2020 presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
For the Washington rally, organisers said they also reached out to veterans groups and government accountability organisations.
"The goal here is to have different types of groups - and different types of people - to show that this is not about party," said Mr Hubbard. "This is about the Constitution."
In many places, however, the protests functioned less as a chance to vent about Mr Trump's Ukraine dealings than as an opportunity for collective catharsis over the entire track record of a president disapproved of by slightly more than half the country.
Most of the rallies drew dozens, or, at most, hundreds. Their relatively modest scale reflected the difficulty Mr Trump's opponents face in mobilising voters around ejecting the President when the chances of doing that before the 2020 election appear vanishingly small.
Organiser Jessica Prozinski, 44, addressing a crowd of 125 bundled together against the freezing cold in downtown Detroit, made quick mention of "the whole Ukrainian phone call thing", while emphasising "Trump's real crimes against humanity". Among them: "stealing babies from their mothers' arms", "putting a sexual predator on the Supreme Court", and "praising neo-Nazis".
At the mention of each alleged offence, the crowd issued its verdict: "Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!"
The Detroit protest was one of about 20 planned in Michigan. Many were, however, sparsely attended and might look especially small compared with the rally Mr Trump planned yesterday at an arena in Battle Creek, where about 10,000 were expected.
Michigan was among the traditionally Democratic states that Mr Trump claimed in 2016.
Surveys show that Mr Trump's impeachment is far more popular than Mr Clinton's ever was. However, the country remains entrenched in rival camps, with about half favouring it and half opposing it. Public hearings this fall barely moved the needle.
Mr Trump's expected impeachment by the Democratic-controlled House would trigger a trial in the Senate. Republicans enjoy a majority in the Senate and are unlikely to vote to remove the 45th US President from office.
Ms Pat Barnes, who rallied in West Palm Beach, Florida, not far from Mr Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, said: "I think if the senators voted with their conscience instead of with their party, they would remove him from office."
WASHINGTON POST, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
