Trump slams 'vicious' Pelosi, apologizes to family for hardships during impeachment in acquittal speech
President Donald Trump has taken an unsparing approach vis-a-vis his domestic rivals ever since the Senate acquitted him of the charges to have created pressure on the Ukrainian government to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter over their links with the East European nation.
The septuagenarian gave a freewheeling speech at the White House after Senate’s verdict came where he blasted the Democrats as “vicious and mean”, called the cops “evil and dirty” and thanked his “very good friends” for their support. He also apologized to his family, including youngest son Barron who is a minor, for going through hardships.
“This is a day of celebration because we went through hell,” Trump, the third American president to be impeached (and acquitted as well) told a crowd of about 200 supporters in the House’s East Room. He yet again used the term “witchhunt” — one which he has often pronounced in the past to attack the various allegations and probes that have been initiated against him.
“We've been going through this now for over three years. It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops. It was a leakers and lawyers. This should never happen to another president, ever. I don't know that other presidents would have been able to take it,” Trump said.
Trump slams, apologizes, praises
“I want to apologize to my family for having them have to go through a phony, rotten deal by some very evil and sick people. And Ivanka is here, my sons, my whole family. And that includes Barron. He's up there, he's a young boy,” the embattled Republican said. He was hugged by his daughter and senior advisor Ivanka and First Lady Melania.
Trump also targeted people with whom he found himself at odds. He blasted former FBI director James Comey and other top officials of the investigative agency.
He made particular mentions of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff who was one of the Democrats’ House Impeachment managers. He lambasted Pelosi as a “vicious horrible person” and called Schiff also a “horrible person”.
Pelosi has no regrets
Pelosi, on the other hand, had no regrets over her act of ripping up copies of Trump's State of the Union speech. On Thursday, she defended her controversial action saying she had decided as Trump read out his speech that his words were not true and something had to be done to point it out to the people of America.
“I tore up a manifesto of mistruths,” the 79-year-old California lawmaker said at her weekly news conference, cautioning that it was dangerous for the American people to believe his words uttered on the occasion. In the face of the backlash, too, Pelosi stood adamant saying she needed no lessons from anybody, especially the president of the US, about dignity.
Two freshmen Democratic House members criticize Pelosi's act
But Pelosi was also criticized by two fresh House Democrats on Thursday who felt her action of tearing the address copies as “inappropriate” and “disrespectful”.
Joe Cunningham, a representative from South Carolina, and Ben McAdams from Utah confronted the Speaker on the floor when lawmakers were voting on a GOP resolution that expressed disapproval of her paper-tearing act. But the Democrats, who are in control of the House that impeached Trump in December voted down the resolution 224 to 193.
Cunningham and McAdams, who took office in January last year, come from red-leaning states and neither of them voted for Pelosi when she ran for speaker around the same time.
Speaking to The Washington Post, McAdams said: “I thought it was disrespectful. I found things that I agreed with and things that I didn't agree with the president's speech, but I thought that that was beneath us.”
The bitterness between Trump and Pelosi has been a cardinal feature of the former’s presidency. Last October, Pelosi was seen standing up and pointing out to a seated president during an official meeting at the White House over the administration’s decision to pull out troops from Syria.
However, when a reporter had asked Pelosi on another occasion whether she hated the president, she took offense and said she did not hate anybody as she was brought up in a Catholic household. She also said she always prayed for the president.
Pelosi also said her act of ripping up the address papers had nothing to do with Trump refusing to shake her extended hand before the beginning of the speech.