US President Donald Trump is daring opponents to initiate proceedings against him — but Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading the charge against impeachment (SAUL LOEB, Jim WATSON)

Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump doubled down Friday on his claim of an “attempted coup” against him as his battle with Democratic foes entered a vicious new phase of personal insults and strong-arm tactics.

Hovering over it all: the looming question of whether or not the Republican leader will be impeached — “the big I-word,” as Trump put it recently.

The president said he has given his attorney general wide latitude to declassify intelligence information as he probes the origins of the government’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign ties to Russia.

“They will be able to see … how the hoax or witch hunt started and why it started. It was an attempted coup or an attempted takedown of the president of the United States,” he told reporters as he departed on a trip to Japan.

“There’s word and rumor that the FBI and others were involved, CIA were involved with the UK, having to do with the Russian hoax,” he said, adding that he might talk to the outgoing British Prime Minister Theresa May about it.

Trump’s bid to turn the tables on the Democrats comes amid an escalating constitutional clash of powers with the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.

Democratic leaders in the House have launched numerous probes aimed at getting evidence gathered during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 22-month-long probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign — only to be stonewalled by the White House.

That has raised calls by Democrats for initiating impeachment proceedings against Trump.   

In an odd turn, however, it has been House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who has led the charge against impeachment — even as she accuses the president of a potentially impeachable cover-up.

The president, for his part, is daring his opponents to initiate proceedings against him.

“‘If they try to Impeach President Trump, who has done nothing wrong (No Collusion), they will end up getting him re-elected,'” the president wrote Friday, approvingly retweeting a warning to Democrats by a fellow Republican, Senator Lindsey Graham.

– Investigating the investigators –

Trump, meanwhile, is pulling out the stops in the no-holds-barred fight for political supremacy as the country heads toward the 2020 presidential election.

On Thursday, he gave Attorney General William Barr sweeping new authorities to investigate the investigators of his 2016 campaign’s ties to Russia.

He directed all US intelligence agencies to “quickly and fully cooperate” with Barr’s review of the probe, which Trump has attacked as a “treasonous” attempt to unseat him.

Barr, who told a Senate committee earlier in the month he suspected Trump’s campaign was spied on, was given “full and complete authority to declassify information pertaining to this investigation,” Trump said.

The intelligence agencies had previously rebuffed, on national security grounds, declassification demands by Republican lawmakers seeking to spotlight alleged misdeeds by the investigators.

– Cutting words –

As the pressure mounts, a cutting war of words has erupted between Trump and Pelosi, with each questioning the other’s mental stability.

On Friday, Trump posted a video of Pelosi remarks that had been edited to mash up instances in which she stumbled over her words.

“PELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE,” it said. 

Asked why he was attacking her personally, Trump bristled: “Did you hear what she said about me long before I went after her? Did you hear? She made horrible statements.

“She said terrible things, so I just responded in kind. Look, you think Nancy is the same as she was? She’s not,” he said.

On Thursday, speaking to a room full of farmers and ranchers who had been invited to the White House for an unrelated event on China tariffs, Trump said Pelosi was “a mess.”

“She’s lost it … I think she’s got a lot of problems.”

Pelosi was rare among politicians for having been spared Trump’s penchant for mocking nicknames, but the president finally came up with one on Thursday: “Crazy Nancy!”

Pelosi’s acid response on Twitter? “When the ‘extremely stable genius’ starts acting more presidential, I’ll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues.”

Where this goes from here is unclear.

Pelosi must contend with a restless Democratic caucus that is divided over whether or not to impeach the president.

Progressives led by Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin have argued that, in the face of White House stonewalling, the time has come to begin impeachment proceedings.

Raskin argued recently that this would consolidate the varied House inquiries in a single centralized process that would have greater standing in the inevitable court battles to come.

But Pelosi also must consider the impact of what she said would be a “very divisive” impeachment battle on some 30 vulnerable Democrats in districts carried by Trump.

Their loss in the next election could threaten her party’s hold on the House, which puts Pelosi at a fateful crossroads.

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.