President Donald Trump described his impeachment as a “total political hoax,” and added that it should be completely erased, just days after the Senate decided to acquit him on both charges.
Before traveling to North Carolina on Friday morning, he made a statement on the White House lawn saying, “it was a total political hoax,” and went on to say some words about the Democrats.
Trump said:
“There is a lot of evil on that side,”
“They’ve gone crazy.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the president have been exchanging blows all week before and after his acquittal. Just after Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, the speaker boldly tore up pages of his speech in front of the cameras, which shocked lawmakers and TV audiences.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement on Thursday:
“He shredded the truth with his speech, he’s shredding the Constitution with his conduct and I shredded his state of mind address.”
Trump immediately claps back On Friday, claiming that the House Speaker just broke the law because of what she did.
Trump added:
“It is an official document, it’s illegal what she did. She broke the law. I thought it was disrespectful to the chamber, to the country, and look, I got very high marks on the speech and I didn’t know she did it until I was walking out and some of the congressmen and women were saying can you believe she did it—but I didn’t know she did it.”
On Wednesday, after a week-long trial, the Senate voted to acquit the president on both charges of impeachment: charges of abuse of power, and obstruction of Congress.
During the final vote, all Democratic senators sided on convicting the president of both articles including swing-vote moderate Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Doug Jones, D-Ala.
The only problem was on the abuse of power charge from Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah. Romney, though, decided to vote not guilty on the obstruction charge.
The process of inquiry and trial started after Trump was accused of withholding aid to Ukraine as leverage to put pressure on the country and perform an investigation to former Vice President Joe Biden and his family’s transactions.
Democrats believe he used his power to investigate a political rival, considering Biden’s 2020 presidential bid. The president, however, denied any quid pro quo and repeatedly called his dialogues with Ukraine’s president as “perfect.
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Trump said on Friday:
“It’s very sad what happened with the Bidens,”
“Sad how he’s doing and doing in the polls.”
Trump continued to criticize Democrats for Monday’s Iowa caucuses, saying:
“They couldn’t even take a simple tabulation, but yet they are telling you how to run the country and run health care.”
“All the money the Democrats spent and votes are fried.”
When the president was asked whether he thinks former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg or Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who topped the Iowa caucuses, are a threat to his re-election campaign, Trump answered:
“I view everybody as a threat.”