WASHINGTON, Feb 6, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump lashed out at rival Democrats Thursday in a lengthy speech revelling in his impeachment acquittal and raging at the investigations that have overshadowed his administration.
He said his opponents were “vicious and mean” and that he had been “through hell” in the impeachment process.
It was “not a news conference, not a speech, it’s not anything,” Trump said, speaking at the White House. “It’s a celebration.”
He refused to concede any wrongdoing, again describing his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that launched a series of events leading to his impeachment as “perfect” and “a very good call.”
“I know bad phone calls,” Trump said, and this conversation was not one.
Impeachment, he said, was a “very ugly” word.
He spent time blasting former FBI Director James Comey, of whom he said: “Had I not fired James Comey who was a disaster, by the way, it’s possible I wouldn’t even be standing here right now.”
“We caught him in the act,” Trump said of Comey, who he later called a “sleazebag.”
“Dirty cops, bad people. If this happened to President Obama, a lot of people would have been in jail for a long time already, many, many years.”
The president also referenced his earlier remarks at the prayer breakfast, in which he excoriated impeachment and his opponents while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat steps away. Trump said: “I had Nancy Pelosi sitting four seats away and I’m saying things that a lot of people wouldn’t have said but I meant every word of it.” And he criticized House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., as “a failed screenwriter.”
“They’re vicious and mean,” Trump said of his opponents. “Vicious. These people are vicious. Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person.”
One by one, the president went around the room and praised Republicans as he spoke for roughly an hour.
It was a far cry from former President Bill Clinton’s post-acquittal remarks in 1999, in which he said he was “profoundly sorry” for his conduct. — NNN-AGENCIES