House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that if President Donald Trump is not held accountable for his alleged Ukraine actions by the impeachment process, "we are saying goodbye to the republic and hello to a president-king."
"If we allow one president — any president, no matter who she or he may be — to go down this path, we are saying goodbye to the republic and hello to a president-king," Pelosi told Politico in a Dec. 10 interview.
The Democratic-controlled House is expected to vote Wednesday on two articles of impeachment, abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, against President Trump.
If they are approved, the articles are sent to the Senate for adjudication in a trial presided over by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
The Senate would then vote to acquit or convict, removing Trump from office.
At Politico's Women Rule summit in Washington last week, Pelosi dismissed Republican criticism that Democrats were proceeding too quickly.
"I think we're not moving with speed," the speaker told senior Washington correspondent Anna Palmer. "This — was it two and a half years ago that they initiated the Mueller investigation?
"It is not about speed; it's about urgency."
Pelosi added: "One of the charges against the president of the United States is that he was violating his oath of office by asking a foreign government to intervene in our election, undermining the integrity of our elections.
"If we did not hold him accountable, he would continue to undermine our election," she said. "Nothing less is at stake than the central point of our democracy: a free and fair election, not disrupted by foreign powers.
"We do this with great sadness, prayerfully, somberly," Pelosi said.
"If we allow one president — any president, no matter who she or he may be — to go down this path, we are saying goodbye to the republic and hello to a president-king."
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