In what has been decried as one of his most racially insensitive statements yet, President Donald Trump referred to the impeachment inquiry as a "lynching".
"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," he wrote on Twitter. "All Republicans must remember what they are witnessing here - a lynching. But we will WIN!"
This is perhaps the most inflammatory rhetoric Trump has used to describe the democrat-led probe into his administration.
He has, however, previously denounced the work of special counsel Robert Mueller and other congressional investigations as a "witch hunt".
Per an online archive of Trump's social media feed, he has only tweeted the word "lynching" on one other occasion; to praise the conservative radio host, Mark Levin, back in 2015.
This comes after the erstwhile business mogul told four Democrat congresswomen from countries "whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe" to "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came."
Although Trump did not explicitly state which freshmen congresswomen he was referring to, his remarks follow his attack on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, when he asserted that he "doesn't even know where they came from".
"So interesting to see ‘Progressive’ Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run," he tweeted.
"Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!"
The backlash was swift, with some condemning Trump's remarks as racist and xenophobic.
"These women are American citizens. They are doing the most patriotic thing available to them: questioning and critiquing their government," wrote one Twitter user, while another added "Three of the four were born here, so you may be right about fixing the place where they were born. The fourth is a citizen. All were elected by a majority. You fail on all counts."
