President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he was too busy to watch the first public impeachment hearing, as he hosted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House.
“I’m too busy to watch it,” he said. “It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax, I’m too busy to watch it.”
Trump said that he would get briefed on the day’s testimony later in the day.
He commented that he had heard that Democrats were using “television lawyers” to question the witnesses at the hearing.
“I’m not surprised to see it, because Schiff can’t do his own questions,” he said.
Trump was referring to former MSNBC legal analyst Daniel Goldman, who Schiff recruited to conduct the examination of the witnesses Ambassador Bill Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham called the hearing “boring.”
“This sham hearing is not only boring, it is a colossal waste of taxpayer time and money,” she wrote on Twitter.
House Democrats spent the first 93 minutes on opening statements before members of Congress could question the witnesses.
The White House also released a video at noon with the president declaring the investigation as the “single greatest scam in the history of American politics.”
He reminded supporters that Democrats wanted to take away their guns, health care, vote, freedom, and judges with the impeachment process.
“It’s all very simple, they’re trying to stop me because I am fighting for you and I will never let that happen,” Trump said.