Protest in Phoenix, other U.S. cities as Trump impeachment vote looms

PHOENIX - As an impeachment vote against President Donald Trump looms, people are gathering in Phoenix for a protest in support of the impeachment efforts.

Video from SkyFOX shows protesters occupying all four corners of the intersection of Camelback and 24th Street.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump reacted to the impeachment efforts, angrily objecting to the House of Representatives’ articles of impeachment and accusing Democrats of “perversion of justice and abuse of power” in their effort to remove him from office.

Similar protests took place in other parts of the country Tuesday night. Liberal groups organized more than 600 events from Alaska to Florida, following a familiar model of mass protest that has come to define the left during the Trump administration.

Some of the demonstrators were veterans of other marches, while for others, it was their first political rally for many years.

"I really believe that the Constitution is under assault. That is not an exaggeration. I think we have a president at this point who believes he's above the law," said Glenn Conway of North Carolina.

For all the passion among activists, the gatherings were notably smaller than many of the other recent mass protests that began with the millions-strong Women's Marches the day after Trump's inaugural and have ranged over subjects from climate change to gun control.

In Denver, Thaddeus Bruno, 41, lamented that only a few hundred people had turned out. A friend attributed it to people being "Trump-sick," or worn out by the controversies surrounding the president.

"Everyone gets Trump-sick," Bruno said. "You take your Tums and go to the next rally."

Some activists acknowledge that impeachment doesn't fire up people like life-and-death issues such as health care, guns or climate change. Recent public opinion polls show the country relatively divided over whether to remove Trump from office for pressuring Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, and the issue rarely comes up on the Democratic presidential campaign trail.

Jonah Minkoff-Zern of Public Citizen, one of the groups spearheading the demonstrations, cautioned against evaluating the impeachment marches purely on head count. He noted they were organized at the last-minute, on a weeknight, to coincide with the scheduled House vote on the two articles of impeachment Wednesday.

"This is a rapid-response mobilization," he said.

The Associated Press (AP) contributed to this report.