White House Will Not Comply With Impeachment Inquiry
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We ran the numbers: There are 3766 news articles covering this topic. 61% (2292) are left leaning, 28% (1056) center, 11% (418) right leaning.
On Tuesday, the White House declared war on the impeachment inquiry against President Trump, announcing that it will not cooperate with representatives who are attempting to determine the extent of Trump’s wrongdoings in his dealings with foreign governments. Left-leaning articles tend to focus on the fact that the White House’s decision may be detrimental to Trump, as his choice not to cooperate with the impeachment investigation could form the grounds for its own article of impeachment; right-leaning articles tend to emphasize Trump’s characterization of the impeachment process as illegitimate, and centrist articles tend to focus on the procedural aspects of impeachment and where Republicans and Democrats disagree on what is required in an impeachment inquiry.
A left-leaning article from the New York Times examines the potential consequences of Trump’s decision to resist the impeachment process, noting that it sets the stage for a historic clash between the executive and legislative branches of government. The article reports that the decision to resist the inquiry came after Trump blocked the interview of Gordon Sondland, Ambassador to the European Union. The article also notes “House Democrats made clear that his failure to comply with their demands for information could form the basis for its own article of impeachment.”
Right-leaning coverage from Fox News focuses on one of the major points of contention between Trump and the Democrats, which is that the House has not officially voted to open an impeachment inquiry. The article reports that the White House has argued that previous impeachment inquiries have begun with a vote in the House; however, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not required to follow this precedent in order to begin the inquiry. The article also implies that former vice president Joe Biden was corrupt in his dealings in Ukraine, which is the relationship that Trump hoped Ukraine would investigate.
Centrist coverage from NPR focuses on the contents of what they call a “blistering” 8-page letter sent by the White House to inform the Democrats that Trump will not be cooperating with the investigation. The article says that the inquiry lacks constitutional legitimacy without a vote from the House, a position that Pelosi called “manifestly wrong.” The article says that the White House decision steps up a “political and legal standoff between the executive and legislative branches of government.”
From the left
White House Declares War on Impeachment Inquiry, Claiming Effort to Undo Trump’s Election
New York Times