The president’s angry public statements offer a stark contrast to Pelosi and Schiff’s response.
He called his Democratic investigators liars and traitors, deemed his potential 2020 campaign foe and son “stone cold crooked” and said the impeachment inquiry against him was “BULLSHIT.” They said grimly that they would go through the legal process of subpoenaing the White House for documents and noted their obligation to “give the president a chance to exonerate himself.”
He called the press “corrupt” and lambasted a reporter who asked what, if anything, the president wanted a foreign nation to do regarding Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, demanding that the reporter ask a question of the Finnish president instead – and then answered the question posed to the befuddled-looking Finnish leader. They pleaded lightly for questions about free trade and prescription drug costs before agreeing to answer questions about the impeachment probe.
He threatened a “major lawsuit” against those behind special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of interference in the 2016 election – a probe he insists absolves him of wrongdoing. They solemnly warned the president that failure to cooperate with subpoenas would be viewed as obstruction of justice, in itself an impeachable offense.