WASHINGTON — A triumphant President Trump on Thursday clobbered his political enemies and thanked his supporters in his first extended remarks since he was acquitted by the Senate of articles of impeachment passed by the House — and ripped probes he’s faced, saying: “It was all bullshit.”
“We’ve all been through a lot together. It’s been a very unfair situation,” he told the cheering crowd.
“We’ve been going through this now for three years. It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops, it was leakers. It was a disgrace. 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,” he continued before pivoting briefly to his accomplishments.
“We’ve done more than any president, any administration, you look at all of the things we’ve done.”
The commander-in-chief predicted the stock market would have crashed had he not won the 2016 election.
“That’s all our credit. One of the reasons it’s going up … and one of the reasons the stock market has gone up so much in the last few days is people think we’re doing so well, they liked the State of the Union speech,” Trump continued during the free-wheeling address from the East Room, delivered without the aid of teleprompters.
“This is really not a news conference, it’s not a speech, it’s not anything, it’s just we’re sort of — it’s a celebration because we have something that just worked out. It worked out. We went through hell unfairly. Did nothing wrong. Did nothing wrong,” he said, holding up a copy of the Washington Post with a banner headline that said, “Trump acquitted” as the Republican crowd cheered.
“We first went through Russia, Russia, Russia. It was all bullshit,” he added.
“Little did we know we were running against some very, very bad and evil people with fake dossiers, with all of these horrible, dirty cops that took these dossiers and did bad things. They knew all about it.”
The president’s legal team, including Pat Cipollone, Jay Sekulow and Patrick Philbin, had front-row seats for the remarks, and he thanked them profusely.
Also on hand for the East Room address were a host of Trump loyalists, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Doug Collins of Georgia and Louie Gohmert of Texas as well as Dave Bossie, leader of Citizens United.
Trump later went after Rep. Adam Schiff, the lead House impeachment manager, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“They made up facts. A corrupt politician named Adam Schiff made up my statement to the Ukrainian president,” he said about Schiff’s parodic rendition of Trump’s July 25 call to Volodymyr Zelensky, which sparked the impeachment probe after Trump asked Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
“Adam Schiff is a vicious, horrible person. Nancy Pelosi is a horrible person, and she wanted to impeach a long time ago when she said, ‘I pray for the president.’ She doesn’t pray. She may pray but she prays for the opposite. But I doubt she prays at all. These are vicious people.”
Also present were cabinet members including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao — McConnell’s wife — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, Attorney General William Barr and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, among other Republican luminaries.
Senate Republicans voted to acquit Trump of abuse of power for pressing Ukraine to investigate political rival Biden and of obstructing a congressional investigation of the matter.
The acquittal was Trump’s biggest victory yet over his Democratic foes in Congress, who complained bitterly about Senate Republicans’ refusal to call witnesses or seek new evidence at the trial.
“This vote is no vindication, it’s no real acquittal, it’s no victory,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
“It’s meaningless in terms of guilt or innocence because the American people will draw their own conclusion from what they saw.”
After the vote, Democrats were uncertain about their next steps in investigating Trump. There are several pending court cases related to Democratic efforts to get more information from Trump, and Pelosi issued a statement saying the House of Representatives would protect the Constitution “both in the courts of law and in the court of public opinion.”
But Democrats would not say whether they would subpoena John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, to testify before House committees. Senate Republicans rejected Democratic efforts to subpoena Bolton to testify during the trial.
“We’ve made no decisions about any next steps,” Schiff told the “PBS NewsHour” program.
McConnell, speaking to reporters after the vote, accused Democrats of using impeachment to try to gain an advantage in November’s elections for control of the Senate. He called the effort “a colossal political mistake.”
With Reuters