Day after acquittal, president rips Democrats, impeachment process
President delivers defiant speech after acquittal
Exulting in his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump took a scorchedearth victory lap Thursday, denigrating those who tried to remove him from office and pointing ahead to his reelection campaign.
Trump, triumphantly waving a newspaper front page – “Trump acquitted” – denounced the impeachment proceedings as “evil” and portrayed himself as a victim of political foes who want to “destroy our country.”
WASHINGTON – In a fiery, hourlong speech about his impeachment acquittal, President Donald Trump praised a room full of Republicans as “warriors” who defended him while excoriating Democrats for wanting to “destroy our country.”
During extended and apparently offthe-cuff remarks in which the president relived a litany of complaints about Democrats and members of his own administration, he attacked the impeachment effort against him as “evil” and “corrupt,” and the work of “dirty cops.”
“We’ve all been through a lot together,” he said, lumping in the impeachment process with other investigations, including the probe into Russia’s election interference by former special counsel Robert Mueller.
“And it never really stopped. We’ve been going through this now for over three years. It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers and liars and this should never ever happen to another president,” he said.
“Things can happen when you fail so badly,” Trump said Thursday. “I’m sorry about Mitt Romney.”
The Utah Republican became the first senator in U.S. history to vote to convict a president of his own party. The vote robbed Trump of the ability to say that Republicans were unified against his removal.
Before the president appeared, Pat Cipollone and Jay Sekulow, the two lawyers who defended him in his impeachment trial, drew a round of applause as they entered the room.
Trump was joined by several allies in Congress, including Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, John Ratcliffe of Texas, Mark Meadows of North Carolina and Doug Collins of Georgia. Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Mike Lee of Utah and Josh Hawley of Missouri were also in the audience.
After laying out a laundry list of gripes, Trump briefly touted the stock market and the soaring economy. He discussed his State of the Union, saying he received high marks from people he spoke with after his address.
But then he almost immediately returned to impeachment, retelling his version of the investigations dating back to the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“We went through hell, unfairly,” Trump said.
“But this is what the end result is,” he said holding up the front page of The Washington Post with a headline “Trump acquitted.”
Embracing a line he often uses at his campaign rallies, Trump claimed that the investigations were “all bulls-.”
Trump was impeached by the House on Dec. 18, and then acquitted by the Senate Wednesday, over allegations he invited foreign influence in the 2020 election by pressuring Ukraine to gather dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, and then stonewalled the ensuing investigation.