Trump impeachment: Pelosi expects public hearings to begin within weeks as inquiry deepens
Live televised hearings will draw massive audiences, but Americans are still sharply divided on whether the president should be removed from office
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Your support makes all the difference.Nancy Pelosi has said she expects public hearings in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump to start this month.
The Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, who started the process which could see the president removed from power, told Bloomberg: "I would assume there would be public hearing in November."
Mr Trump is accused of abusing his power to pressure the Ukrainian president to dig up or even fabricate political dirt on Joe Biden, one of the frontrunners to be the Democratic candidate in the 2020 election.
He denies doing anything wrong and has repeatedly described as "perfect" a phone call in which he asked Volodymyr Zelensky to do him a "favour" by investigating Mr Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
Speaking at a roundtable event with reporters and editors at Bloomberg, Ms Pelosi said that the behind-closed-doors hearings that started last month would continue for as long as they are "productive", saying the case against Mr Trump had to be "ironclad" if it is to proceed.
On Thursday the House voted to formalise the rules surrounding the inquiry, which will at some point allow Mr Trump's lawyers to cross-examine witnesses. If the House approves articles of impeachment - effectively charges of misconduct - against Mr Trump, the Senate will be expected to hold a trial.
Ms Pelosi told Bloomberg: "I don’t know what the timetable will be - the truth will set us free. We have not made any decisions on if the president will be impeached.”
Live televised hearings will be expected to draw massive audiences, but the country remains sharply divided along partisan lines over whether the president should be removed from office.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 49 per cent believe the president should be impeached and removed from office, while 47 percent say he should not.
Mr Biden appears to have been damaged by the ongoing Ukraine headlines - an Iowa caucus poll released on Friday shows the one-time front-runner has been overtaken by Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Bernie Sanders.
White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a Fox News interview on Friday morning that the administration is "prepared for impeachment to happen", but again insisted the president had done "nothing wrong".
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