Trump talks impeachment in interview, by Michael Goodwin.
The president said a “breaking news” alert had “me holding my breath because I know it’s going to be about me. They’re always about me.” We both laughed.
That was the start of my Tuesday night phone interview. It was 10 p.m. and the president, who sees sleep as a waste of time, seemed very energized despite the relentless onslaught and long days. He admitted he was feeling good, joking that “it must be a personality defect.”
“It sounds strange to say I’m energized, but I love it, I love it,” he said of the daily combat with Democrats and the media. “These people are so corrupt. They’re cons, all they want to do is win the election.”
I had called him because I wanted to know whether he and his team were prepared for the daily barrage of accusations coming from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Adam Schiff and others. …
He believes Dems are deluding themselves in trying to impeach him on the basis of his phone call with the president of Ukraine.
“It’s not a crime, nothing I said was wrong,” Trump insisted. “The whistleblower was totally inaccurate about the call, and it’s all second- and third-hand. It’s a fraud, a hoax, it’s a witch hunt.”
He was just getting warmed up.
“These people are trying to destroy our country, they’re sick, there’s something wrong with them,” Trump said. He repeated his complaint about Schiff making up his own dialogue when supposedly quoting from the transcript of the phone call at last week’s hearing.
“He quoted the president of the United States in a fraudulent manner, he made the entire thing up,” Trump said. “He couldn’t quote me because there was nothing to quote … he just made the whole thing up, he’s sick.” …
“I see the fundraising, it’s the biggest ever,” Trump said, mentioning the record $125 million take for his campaign and the Republican National Committee. …
He again mentioned the transcript of the Ukraine call, saying the speaker “never saw it” until after making her impeachment decision. “She had read only the fake whistleblower complaint, which I think she got in advance because it’s collusion.”
On that, I am in total agreement. Dems, I believe, not only had the complaint, they probably helped to prepare it. The legal citations are a giveaway, as are the many leaks to the anti-Trump media in the days before the complaint became public.
Presidential stature and mysterious aloofness isn’t what it used to be. Because the media coverage of Trump is so biased, in order to get his side of anything across to some of the public Trump has to use Twitter and incendiary language.
