Recently, many people celebrated Martin Luther King day, including President Donald Trump. During a photo op at the memorial, the President, along with Vice President Mike Pence, received a lukewarm response to their presence by the people who were in the crowd that day.
Politicalflare reports that Trump and Pence stopped by the Martin Luther King memorial, and according to CNN reporter Daniel Dale, they only stayed there for about 30 seconds and posed for a photo-op during that time. Dale said that Trump did not say anything and instead smiled and waved at the people who were watching. There were cheers from some, as well as chants of “USA,” and there were even some boos that came up.
Trump stopped by hours prior to his trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. Before that, Kellyanne Conway, who serves as counselor to the President, stated that Trump stands by many of the beliefs that Martin Luther King stood for. Conway even went on to say that Dr. King would have been against Trump’s impeachment as well. “When you see the articles of impeachment that came out, I don’t think it was within Dr. King’s vision to have Americans dragged through the process where the President is not going to be removed from office, is not being charged with bribery, extortion, high crimes or misdemeanors,” said Conway.
Conway also stated that Trump now has a “full-throttle defense on the facts,” perhaps referring to the response his legal team sent out to the Senate before trial proceedings began.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reports that the United States Senate is now prepared to hear opening arguments from both sides in the impeachment trial that will not determine whether or not Trump is to be removed from office due to his crimes. This also serves as the third time in the history of the country that the House of Representatives called for prosecutors to charge Trump on “high crimes and misdemeanors” and declare that he be removed from office.
Trump was ruled to be impeached by the House on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. These were related to the accusations that he threatened the US National Security regarding the country’s relations with Ukraine, along with withholding the aid sent by Congress to Ukraine.