Amid impeachment trial, lawmakers wage battle for public opinion

As one Houston lawmaker fought on the Senate floor to end the Trump Presidency, other congressional colleagues were battling for hearts and minds back in the Bayou City.

"It's clear what the president wanted from Ukraine - an investigation to smear his political rival...President Trump had the motive, the opportunity and the means to commit this abuse of power," said Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a House Impeachment manager prosecuting the President.

Back in Houston,13-term Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee says the evidence against Trump is both damning and overwhelming. She believes the 45th President committed acts the founders would have considered solid grounds for removal.

"They wrote in there the act of impeachment, to hold the head of state accountable because they were fearful of a monarchy, they were fearful of losing this democracy and they wanted some way to protect it. Not for themselves, but for the generations to come," said Jackson Lee, adding, "To ask a foreign entity to engage in an election and alter it and undermine it and get dirt on your opponent that is an abuse of power."

But Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz calls that kind of rhetoric factually inaccurate and politically driven.

He's now appearing in special podcasts to convince voters that Democrats are trying and failing to lower the high Constitutional bar for removing a President from office.

'I think it's very dangerous. I think if the House Democrats standard this time, if that's what holds going forward, anytime you have a President of one party and a House of a different party they are going to impeach him. We are going to see this as a standard tool of political warfare," said Cruz.

While multiple surveys indicate the nation is evenly split on whether President Trump should be removed new polling shows a majority of Americans support allowing additional witnesses to testify in the impeachment proceedings.

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