Donald Trump, his White House staff and his Republican allies in Congress responded with fury Tuesday morning, shortly after House Democrats announced impeachment charges against the president.
Inevitably, in a tweet Trump branded the impeachment drive a “WITCH HUNT!”
Trump made it personal, specifically directing his fury at the two House committee chairmen who led the impeachment inquiry and drafting of the articles of impeachment: Adam Schiff (D-CA) of the Intelligence Committee and Gerald Nadler (D-NY) of the Judiciary Committee.
“Shifty Schiff, a totally corrupt politician, made up a horrible and fraudulent statement, read it to Congress, and said those words came from me,” Trump tweeted, claiming that Schiff exaggerated Trump’s words in that now-famous conversation with Ukraine’s president.
As for Nadler’s comment to reporters on Tuesday that Trump pressured Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 U.S. election, the president tweeted: “Ridiculous, and he knows that’s not true.”
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told the Wall Street Journal the nature of the two articles of impeachment against Trump “should surprise nobody that’s what this was going to be from the very beginning anyway.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), a forceful Trump ally, called the articles of impeachment “a baseless attempt to upend the will of the people less than 11 months before the next election,” adding in a statement that the impeachment effort “marks a shameful chapter in American history.”
That theme — that Democrats’ true intent with impeachment is to steer next year’s election in their favor — was central to the GOP reaction.
“Americans don’t agree with this rank partisanship, but Democrats are putting on this political theater because they don’t have a viable candidate for 2020 and they know it,” said Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale, in a statement.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel branded the articles of impeachment “yet another partisan attempt to overthrow a duly-elected President and rob voters of the chance to re-elect him in 2020.”
And White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham accused the Democrats of “proceeding with the inquiry with a ‘pre-determined outcome,’ claiming they sought to impeach Trump because they don’t believe they can beat him in the 2020 presidential election,” says The Hill.
