Trump welcomes Dems’ impeachment threats
Fight over high court vacancy heats up
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump insisted Monday that he welcomes the threat of a second impeachment by Democrats if he is successful in his push to fill the Supreme Court seat vacated by the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“Go ahead ... I want them to do it,” Trump told a crowd that broke into chants of “Fill that seat!” at a campaign rally at the Toledo Express Airport in Swanton, Ohio. “I’m the only guy in the world that could get impeached for trying to fill a seat.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not rule out the possibility of impeachment Sunday after ABC News “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos pointed to calls for moving to impeach Trump or Attorney General William Barr as a means of delaying a Senate confirmation vote.
“Well, we have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I’m not about to discuss right now,” Pelosi said.
Trump’s comments came as he mulls his Supreme Court pick, which he said he would unveil at the end of the week after memorial services conclude for Ginsburg, who died Friday.
The president, who said he’s narrowed his shortlist to five women, told the crowd that he planned to announce his decision “probably Saturday.” Trump earlier told reporters he would like to see the Republican-led Senate vote on his nominee before Election Day on Nov. 3.
“We have plenty of time to do it.” Earlier at the White House, the president met with one of his potential candidates, appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett, according to two advisers speaking on the condition of anonymity. He said he may meet with another top contender, appeals court Judge Barbara Lagoa, during a two-day trip to her home state of Florida on Thursday.
Before his political rally in Swanton, Trump delivered an hourlong speech billed as a union workers meeting at Dayton International Airport in Vandalia, Ohio. But he echoed many of his usual campaign attacks on Biden, assailing the former vice president as a “die-hard globalist” who he accused of “economic treachery” and blamed for the loss of thousands of jobs in Ohio.
“It’s not that he wants to crush America, but he will just out of gross incompetence,” Trump said of Biden.
Biden traveled to the key swing state of Wisconsin on Monday, where he criticized the president’s handling the pandemic and accused Trump of endangering his supporters who “are packed as tightly as they can be, risking disease mostly without masks.”
“For Trump, these rallies are about entertainment (and) adoration,” Biden said. “They’re not about respect. Don’t kid yourself. This is a one-way street.”