EMBOLDENED TRUMP TAKES VICTORY LAP WITH ACQUITTAL ‘CELEBRATION’
Denounces foes as ‘sleaze bags,’ stuns prayer gathering
WASHINGTON — Exulting in his impeachment acquittal, a defiant President Donald Trump took a scorched-earth victory lap Thursday, unleashing his fury against those who tried to remove him from office and pointing ahead to his reelection campaign.
Triumphantly waving newspaper front pages that declared him “ACQUITTED,” Trump denounced the impeachment proceedings as a “disgrace” and portrayed himself as a victim of political foes he labeled “scum,” “sleaze bags” and “crooked” people. Hours earlier, he unleashed broadsides that stunned the crowd at an annual bipartisan prayer breakfast
“It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops,” Trump declared in a packed White House East Room, where he was surrounded by several hundred of his most loyal supporters. “This should never ever happen to another president, ever.”
He conceded nothing in regard to charges that he improperly withheld a White House meeting and U.S. military aid in an effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and other political matters.
“We went through hell, unfairly,” he insisted. “Did nothing wrong.”
His comments were a clear sign that, post-impeachment, Trump is emboldened like never before as he barrels ahead in his reelection fight.
The only contrition Trump offered was to his own family, apologizing “for having them go through a phony, rotten deal.”
Trump had plenty else to say, however. Venting for more than an hour, he ticked off names of the “vicious and mean” people he felt had wronged him: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and former FBI Director James Comey. And he reveled in the verdict handed down by the GOP-controlled Senate Wednesday, saluting one-by-one in Oscar acceptance speech-fashion the “warrior” GOP lawmakers who had backed him both in the Capitol and on television.
“Now we have that gorgeous word. I never thought it would sound so good,” Trump said. “It’s called ‘total acquittal.’”
Trump’s remarks, delivered with the aid of scribbled notes but no teleprompter, were rambling and replete with profane language, comedic interludes and plenty of tangents and asides. He ribbed Ohio Rep. James Jordan, a college wrestling champion, for rarely wearing a suit jacket, saying, “He’s obviously very proud of his body.” And he delivered a dramatic reading of text messages between two of his favorite targets, former FBI agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page, who played a role in the special counsel’s investigation of Russian interference to help Trump in the 2016 election.
“This is really not a press conference. It’s not a speech. It’s not anything,” Trump remarked at one point. “It’s a celebration.”
Trump predicted that he may have to fend off another impeachment challenge, perhaps for something as trivial as jaywalking.
“We’ll probably have to do it again because these people have gone stone-cold crazy,” the president said.
Earlier Thursday, Trump shattered the usual veneer of bipartisanship at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington by unleashing his fury against those who tried to impeach him, with Pelosi sitting on stage.
“As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” Trump said at the annual event.
His remarks came after a series of Scripture-quoting speeches, including a keynote address by Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and president of a conservative think tank, who had bemoaned a “crisis of contempt and polarization” in the nation and urged those gathered to ”love your enemies.”
“I don’t know if I agree with you,” Trump said as he took the microphone, and then he proceeded to demonstrate it.
“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” he said in an apparent reference to Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a longtime Trump critic who cited his faith in becoming the only Republican to vote for Trump’s removal.
“Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when you know that is not so,’” he said, in a reference to Pelosi, who has offered that message for the president when the two leaders have sparred publicly.
The House speaker, who shook her head at various points during Trump’s remarks, later told reporters they were “so completely inappropriate, especially at a prayer breakfast.” She took particular issue with his swipe at Romney’s faith and said that, yes, she does pray for the president.
Trump later said he “meant every word.”