WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced off Sunday ahead of his impeachment trial, as she said senators will "pay a price" for blocking new witnesses and he quickly retorted she and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff should testify.
The House plans to vote this week to transmit the articles of impeachment to the Senate for the historic trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress over Trump's actions toward Ukraine. It will be only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history and could start this week.
Trump and Pelosi, the two most powerful party leaders in the nation, communicated with the president responding on Twitter to a television interview.
"It's about a fair trial," Pelosi told ABC's "This Week." "We've done our job. We have defended the Constitution of the United States. We would hope the Senate would do that as well."
She warned, "Now the ball is in their court to either do that or pay a price."
Trump tweeted right before and after Pelosi's appearance, saying she and Schiff should appear in the Senate for testimony.
The president rebutted Pelosi's suggestion that no matter what the Senate does, he will always be impeached. Pelosi said the House vote last month means Trump will be "impeached forever" and "for life."
"Why should I have the stigma of Impeachment attached to my name when I did NOTHING wrong?" Trump tweeted.
Voters are divided over impeachment much the way they are split along partisan lines and as the Senate prepares for the landmark trial both parties are trying to set the terms of the debate over high crimes and misdemeanors.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is seeking a speedy trial to acquit the president and is reluctant to seek more witnesses. The GOP leader has proposed a process similar to the last presidential impeachment trial of Bill Clinton in 1999 that would start the proceedings and then vote later on hearing new testimony.
One leading Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, has already predicted the trial would end "in a matter of days."
In a Fox News interview Saturday, Graham dismissed Pelosi's tactics, saying the delay would have no effect on calling new witnesses or the expected outcome - acquittal by the GOP-controlled Senate.
"The Senate should not reward this behavior by the House," said Graham, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The Senate should end this trial as quickly as possible. That's what I intend to do. He will be acquitted. I hope and pray every Republican will reject what Nancy Pelosi did, and we'll pick up a few Democrats."
Trump was charged with abuse of power for pressuring the president of Ukraine to investigate Democrats, specifically Trump political rival Joe Biden. Trump was also charged with obstruction of Congress for trying to block the House investigation.
Trump was delaying nearly $400 million in aide as Ukraine battles Russia on its border while he pushed the country's new president to investigate. Trump follows a conspiracy theory pushed by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani about Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on the board of a gas company there while his father was vice president. Neither is accused formally of any wrongdoing.