President Trump and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney jumped at the chance to disparage House Democrats’ announcement Tuesday of two articles of impeachment.
In a series of tweets posted within minutes of the announcement, Trump took aim at House Judiciary Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and House Intelligence Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA). The President also reprised his argument from last week that when he said in his now-infamous call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that “I would like you to do US a favor,” the word “us” referred to the United States.
Nadler just said that I “pressured Ukraine to interfere in our 2020 Election.” Ridiculous, and he knows that is not true. Both the President & Foreign Minister of Ukraine said, many times, that there “WAS NO PRESSURE.” Nadler and the Dems know this, but refuse to acknowledge!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
Shifty Schiff, a totally corrupt politician, made up a horrible and fraudulent statement, read it to Congress, and said those words came from me. He got caught, was very embarrassed, yet nothing happened to him for committing this fraud. He’ll eventually have to answer for this!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
Read the Transcripts! “us” is a reference to USA, not me!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2019
Trump’s tweets came on the heels of Mulvaney’s live question-and-answer session with the Wall Street Journal Tuesday morning. Mulvaney called the articles “very specific” and that “they should surprise nobody” because “that’s what this was going to be from the beginning anyway.”
The embattled acting chief of staff then argued that impeachment “is a political process, not a legal process” nor is it “judicial.”
However, when asked whether he would be open to testifying in the impeachment proceedings, Mulvaney responded that “part of me really wants to” but that it depends on what Trump “wants us to do,” according to CNN.
In a segment of the interview aired on CNN, Mulvaney said that the point he was trying to make during his disastrous press conference in October when he admitted quid pro quo was that “politics can and should influence foreign policy.”
“You may have one foreign policy you’re running on, I may have a different one. Whoever wins gets to set that foreign policy,” Mulvaney said. “That was the point I was trying to make in that, in that press conference, was that politics can and should influence foreign policy and hopefully always will.”
When asked about “stopping short of getting another country to investigate your political rival,” Mulvaney refused “to go into the facts” and insisted that he was “not going to talk about the facts until the President tells me.”
Watch Mulvaney’s remarks below:
"If the president instructs me to tell my side of the story, I look forward to it." Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney discusses the impeachment proceedings with @johncbussey at #WSJCEOCouncil pic.twitter.com/ovkK9yHk25
— Capital Journal (@WSJPolitics) December 10, 2019
Mulvaney reacts to two articles of impeachment pic.twitter.com/IBUwTQIOFk
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 10, 2019
