President Donald Trump expressed amazement Tuesday at reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was possibly preparing to impeach him as President of the United States.
“If she does that, they all say that’s a positive for me in the election,” Trump said as he met with world leaders in New York City while at the United Nations summit. “You could also say who needs it, it’s bad for the county.”
Media reports previewed that Pelosi will announce a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump after the president spoke to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky about investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden for corruption.
The president told reporters that he had not heard of Pelosi’s looming decision, but called the ongoing investigation “the worst witch hunt in political history.”
But Trump added that voters would understand Democrats are overreaching.
“The good news is the voters get it,” he said. “This is why they say it’s good for the election, but you know what? It’s bad for the country, what she’s doing is very bad.”
Trump spoke to reporters at a meeting with Iraq President Barham Salih on Tuesday afternoon, calling the reports “crazy.”
The president said that Democrats continued efforts to force him out of office had seriously impaired the country’s ability to address serious issues.
“Then they all wonder why they don’t get gun legislation done, then they wonder why they don’t get drug prices lowered because all they do is talk nonsense,” Trump wrote. “No more infrastructure bills, no more anything. All they do, that’s all they do. … it’s the craziest thing anybody’s seen.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump authorized a release of a transcript of the call with Zelensky to prove that there was nothing wrong said in the conversation.
“You will see it was a very friendly and totally appropriate call,” he wrote on Twitter.
He expressed surprise that Pelosi was willing to act, without even seeing the transcript of the call.
“I can’t even believe that it’s true,” he said. “How can you do this and you haven’t even seen the phone call?”
Pelosi is expected to announce her decision about impeachment proceedings after a 4:00 p.m. EST meeting with House Democrats on Tuesday.
Trump argued against impeachment, citing low unemployment numbers, a strong economy, and a rebuilt military under his presidency.
“The country’s doing the best it’s ever done, and I just heard that she’d like to impeach,” he said.
Trump also cited a new Rasmussen poll on his popularity among likely voters at 53 percent and suggested that Democrats were reacting to fears that they would lose in 2020.
“Our country’s doing the best its ever done and they’re going to lose the election and they figured this is a thing to do,” he said.
The president also reacted to the news on Twitter.
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