CNN News:特朗普拒绝出席首场弹劾听证会

An objective update on the impeachment investigation concerning the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. President Donald Trump is our first subject today. Here's what's happening:
The House Judiciary Committee is planning to hold its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday. Until now, it's the House Intelligence Committee that's been holding hearings, including two weeks of public testimony that wrapped up before Thanksgiving.
House Democrats who are leading the investigation say a vote on whether to impeach the president, meaning formally charge him with a crime, could happen in the House by Christmas. And after that, it would be up to the Senate to hold a trial.
So, what's this all about? It involves President Trump and the president of Ukraine. Democratic leaders have accused President Trump of abusing his power to get Ukraine to investigate a Ukrainian gas company that Hunter Biden used to work for. He's the son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who's running for the presidency in next year's election. So many Democrats say President Trump was trying to pressure a foreign country to dig up dirt on a political rival, and that that's an impeachable offense.

President Trump and Republican leaders say the impeachment investigation is a hoax motivated by politics. They say Democrats are rushing the process and that the president did nothing wrong that he could be impeached for.
As far as tomorrow's hearing goes, neither President Trump nor his attorneys will participate. They say it was scheduled for when the president is in international meeting in London and that it's unclear if the process would be fair to him. The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee says that's unfortunate because the American people deserve transparency. Experts say to expect the House to be divided along party lines over the ongoing impeachment investigation.