President Trump called the House's impeachment inquiry into allegations that he leveraged military funding for Ukraine to push an investigation against his political opponents "a lynching" in a Tuesday tweet.
"So some day, if a Democrat becomes President and the Republicans win the House, even by a tiny margin, they can impeach the President, without due process or fairness or any legal rights. All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching. But we will WIN!"
Why it matters: The president equated a congressional investigation into his administration to a hate crime historically targeting African Americans in the South.
- The NAACP estimates that 4,743 recorded lynchings occurred in the U.S from 1882 through 1968. Of those incidents, the vast majority — 3,446 — involved black people as victims.
- CNN's Daniel Dale noted that this was the first time that Trump has used the word "lynching" as president.
Go deeper: Trump's premeditated racism is central to his 2020 strategy
