Trump warns the Democrats
COMBATIVE: PRESIDENT PROMISES TO ADOPT A ‘WARLIKE POSTURE’ IF THEY INVESTIGATE HIM
He calls a CNN journalist ‘a rude, terrible person’.
US President Donald Trump vowed yesterday to jettison any attempt at bipartisanship and fight back if the new Democratic majority in the US House of Representatives used its powers to press investigations into his administration.
Trump, speaking during a combative news conference in which he trumpeted his role in the Republican gains made in Tuesday’s midterm elections, warned that he would adopt a “warlike posture” if Democrats investigated him.
Democrats will now head House committees that can probe the president’s tax returns, which he has refused to turn over, possible business conflicts of interest and any links between his 2016 election campaign and Russia, a matter that is being investigated by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Trump was buoyed by victories that added to the Republican majority in the US Senate, telling reporters the gains outweighed the Democrats’ takeover of the House. He said he was willing to work with Democrats on key pri- orities but felt any investigations of his administration would hurt prospects for bipartisanship.
“They can play that game, but we can play it better,” Trump said of the possibility of Democratic investigations.
“All you’re going to do is end up in back and forth and back and forth, and two years is going to go up and we won’t have done a thing.”
During the raucous news conference that lasted close to 90 minutes, he cast Tuesday’s congressional election results as “very close to complete victory” for Republicans.
Some reporters pushed him on whether his campaign rhetoric on migrants from central America was divisive – and on developments in a federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and any coordination between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Trump aggressively pushed back. “CNN should be ashamed of itself, having you working for them,” Trump told CNN correspondent Jim Acosta.
“You are a rude, terrible person.”
A White House staffer grabbed and pulled the microphone while Acosta held it in his hands. – Reuters