President Donald Trump Takes Victory Lap on Acquittal by Divided Senate
United States President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Thursday, a day after a divided Senate voted to acquit him on impeachment charges.
In a lengthy speech at the White House East Room packed with Republican lawmakers, administration officials and reporters, Mr Trump called the event “a celebration.”
While holding up a copy of Thursday’s The Washington Post with the headline “Trump acquitted,” the president joked about going to take the paper home and frame it. On Wednesday, the final day of the Senate trial of Mr Trump’s impeachment, senators voted 52 to 48 to reject the first charge of abuse of power, and 53 to 47 against the second charge of obstruction of Congress. Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah and the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, broke from the party by voting “guilty” on the abuse of power charge against Mr Trump, becoming the only member of the chamber who crossed party lines. Taking a shot at Mr Romney, Mr Trump called him “a failed presidential candidate.” Mr Romney, in a Senate floor speech on Wednesday explaining his decision, said “the president is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust.”
During Thursday’s remarks,
Trump also went after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, lead impeachment manager Adam Schiff, and other Democrats, who were pushing the impeachment drive.
Ms Pelosi, in her weekly press conference on Capitol Hill on Thursday, said the House “had a strong enough case to impeach and remove.”
“You’re impeached forever, you’re never getting rid of that scar,” Ms Pelosi said of Mr Trump.
The strained relationship between Trump and Pelosi is in limelight again after a pair of dramas on the occasion of the president’s State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.