President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump left the White House on Monday for the NATO Summit in London, berating Democrats for trying to impeach him.
Trump criticized Democrats for plotting to undercut the presidency, as he traveled to conduct world diplomacy in Europe.
“This is among the most important journeys that we make as president and for them to do be doing this, and saying this, and putting an impeachment on the table and this is a hoax to start off with,” he said to reporters as he left the White House.
Trump pointed to an interview published Monday with Ukrainian President Zelensky, who again said there was no quid pro quo relationship between financial and military aid to Ukraine and whether or not they would commit to investigating the corrupt energy company Burisma and Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s role on the board of the company.
Look, I never talked to the President from the position of a quid pro quo. That’s not my thing. … I don’t want us to look like beggars,” Zelensky said in the interview with TIME magazine.
Trump argued that Zelensky’s comments meant that the case for impeachment was over.
“That should be case over … that should end everything,” he said, referring to the Democrat-led impeachment process. “But it will never end it because they want to do what they want to do and they’re getting killed in their own districts.”
Trump said that the White House would continue to fight the impeachment process, which is now in the hands of House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler.
“The whole thing is a hoax and everybody knows it,” he said.
Trump boasted that NATO was stronger than ever, as partner nations will meet in London to celebrate the alliance’s 70th Anniversary. He criticized some NATO members who were failing to meet the 2 percent of GDP spending thresholds for NATO, describing them as “delinquent.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced last week that since Donald Trump was elected, NATO member countries those nations will have spent $130 billion in additional defense spending by the end of 2020. The president’s pressure on NATO countries has increased contributions from European allied nations and Canada by 4.6 percent.
“This is unprecedented progress and it is making NATO stronger,” Stoltenberg said.
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