You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service.

This is Hard Talk with me, Sean Lay.

Thanks for downloading this edition of the program, and I hope you enjoy it.

Donald Trump calls the impeachment inquiry a witch hunt.

In recent days, the US president has been accused of trying to intimidate a witness.

Now a US ambassador central to the allegations, a Trump supporter,

who donated $1 million for his inauguration celebrations, has told Congress that President did make aid for Ukraine contingent on the Ukrainians launching an inquiry into the son of Joe Biden.

Mr Biden could be Trump's Democrat challenger in next year's presidential election.

Media mogul Christopher Ruddy of Newsmax has known Donald Trump well for 20 years.

He's accused Democrats of playing politics with impeachment. After this week, how much trouble is

Donald Trump in? Christopher Ruddy, welcome to Hart Talk. You didn't want this impeachment inquiry.

You said it was just political game playing by the Democrats. As the inquiry has developed,

do you know I accept that it's a necessary process for American politics to be going through?

Well, I think we should respect the process, but we should also call it for what it is, which is

a bit of a charade. Usually, in a case like this, you would first gather evidence and decide whether

an impeachment process is really proper. Nancy Pelosi pulled the trigger on impeachment without

looking at the whistleblower complaint, without interviewing any of the witnesses, without ever seeing

the president's transcript with President Zelensky. Now, some of that information has come out since then,

but I think it's been preordained that it's going to be an impeachment.

And that's, I think, bad for the country.

And the public approval polls over here in America show that they have not gotten a majority

support yet for this impeachment.

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