Embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff branded Vice President Michel Temer a traitor on Tuesday, saying he is a conspirator trying to engineer a "coup" against her with impeachment proceedings.
Rousseff said Temer and Lower House Speaker Eduardo Cunha "now are conspiring openly, in the light of day, to destabilize a legitimately elected president."
The Brazilian leader, speaking to teachers and students at the Presidential Palace in Brasilia, said Temer and Cunha are working to gather support for her impeachment in a Lower House vote that could occur by the end of this week.
Critics have accused Rousseff of violating financial rules to hide budget problems by shifting around government accounts ahead of her re-election in 2014.
Rousseff was particularly incensed by a recording leaked Monday in which Temer is practicing the speech he would make if she is impeached.
"The mask of the conspirators has fallen," she said. "We are living in strange and worrying times, times of a coup and pretending and treachery. Yesterday they used the pretense of a leak to give the order for the conspiracy."
