\u201cIt\u2019s a witch hunt, a sham, a hoax. Nothing was done wrong. Zero was done wrong. I think it\u2019s a horrible thing to be using the tool of impeachment which is supposed to be used in an emergency,\u201d he said during a White House meeting with Paraguay\u2019s president, Mario Abdo Ben\u00edtez.<\/p>\n
He said his call to Ukraine President Voldymyr Zelensky, in which he asked him to launch investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden and Ukraine\u2019s role in the 2016 US election, was \u201cperfect\u201d and not grounds for impeachment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president of that country said there was no pressure whatsoever, didn\u2019t even know what we were talking about. It was perfect, the relationship is perfect. I\u2019ve done much more for [Ukraine] than Obama did for them,\u201d he said, adding in his first public remarks on the issue since the committee\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n
The effort also sets a dangerous precedent, Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a scam. It\u2019s something that shouldn\u2019t be allowed and it\u2019s a very bad thing for our country, and you\u2019re trivializing impeachment. And I tell you what, someday there will be a Democrat president and there will be a Republican House, and I suspect they\u2019re going to remember it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president then said Democrats were only using impeachment to score political points, but that the effort was backfiring because he was benefiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy poll numbers, as you know, have gone through the roof. Fundraising for the Republican Party has gone through the roof. We\u2019re setting records.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody has ever seen anything like it, because the people are disgusted. The people are absolutely disgusted,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
He said he tuned in to Thursday\u2019s marathon hearing and was not impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI watched yesterday. I got to see quite a bit of it yesterday and I watched the Democrats and the committee make fools out of themselves, absolute fools out of themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also slammed House Speaker Pelosi, asserting that she had been working on impeachment for two years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo she was working on it two years before I ever spoke to Ukraine. She said, \u2018We\u2019ve been working on impeachment for two and a half years,\u2019 and reporters were shocked when they got this answer because it shows she\u2019s a liar,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier Friday, the White House and congressional Republicans lit up House Judiciary Committee Democrats for ramming through two articles of impeachment<\/a> against Trump on a party-line vote that morning.<\/p>\n \u201cThis desperate charade of an impeachment inquiry in the House Judiciary Committee has reached its shameful end. The President looks forward to receiving in the Senate the fair treatment and due process which continues to be disgracefully denied to him by the House,\u201d Trump spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.<\/p>\n The committee\u2019s ranking Republican, Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia,\u00a0bitterly criticized Democrats on the panel in a statement, asserting that they wanted to \u201ckneecap our Democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cToday\u2019s vote highlights the pettiness of last night\u2019s delay and the folly of articles of impeachment that allege no crime and establish no case,\u201d he said, referring to Chairman Jerry Nadler\u2019s unexpected adjournment of Thursday\u2019s 14-hour hearing.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile it\u2019s already clear that Democrats broke their own promises to rig this outcome, what will become more obvious in the coming days and years is that Democrats gravely abused their power,\u201d continued Collins, a staunch supporter of the president.<\/p>\n \u201cThis abuse of power doesn\u2019t just undermine the integrity of our chamber or the independence of future presidencies, Democrats have sacrificed core American tenets of due process, fairness, and the presumption of innocence on the altar of a 2016 election that they lost three years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cRather than help Americans move into the future with confidence, Democrats are attempting to kneecap our Democracy. They\u2019re telling millions of voters that Democrats will work to overturn the will of the people wherever it conflicts with the will of liberal elites.\u201d<\/p>\n A grim-faced Nadler offered a terse statement during a news conference on Capitol Hill, after which he took no questions.<\/p>\n \u201cToday is a solemn and sad day. For the third time in a little over a century and a half, the House Judiciary Committee has voted articles of impeachment against the president for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House will act expeditiously. Thank you,\u201d Nadler said before walking away from the podium.<\/p>\n Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a committee member, charged that Trump\u2019s misdeeds were clear.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen a president of the United States invites a foreign government to interfere in our elections and uses the office of the president, a White House meeting, and taxpayer military aid that was approved by Congress, if that is not impeachable, I do not know what is,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n Jayapal also fired back at Republicans for backing Trump despite what she called a clear-cut case against him.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody is going to have to vote their conscience. And I think that if somebody votes no on these articles, I have a hard time understanding how they could look at the facts and do that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all have to wake up and go to bed with ourselves every night and we\u2019ll be remembered in history for this vote. That\u2019s what I would remind all of my Republican colleagues who aren\u2019t sure what they\u2019re going to do is to think about the effect on history,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n \u201cThis idea that democracy can be saved or preserved without any effort, without any courage from us is an affront to the people who fought in the revolutions and on the battlefields to create the democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n During Thursday\u2019s raucous hearings, Republicans defended Trump and accused Democrats of a politically motivated farce, while Democrats have accused the president of endangering the Constitution, jeopardizing national security and undermining the integrity of the 2020 election by pressuring Zelensky in a July phone call to investigate the Bidens.<\/p>\n The committee approved charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress against Trump on Friday, making it almost certain he will become the third American president in history to be impeached.<\/p>\n The committee voted 23-17 along party lines to approve an article of impeachment charging Trump with abusing the power of his office to pressure Ukraine to investigate Biden<\/a>, a possible rival in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n The panel also backed a second article by the same margin accusing Trump of obstructing Congress\u2019 investigation of the Ukraine scandal by ordering administration officials not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.<\/p>\n The full House, where the Democrats hold a majority, is likely to approve the charges next week, completing that end of the impeachment process and sending Trump for trial in the Senate within weeks.<\/p>\n![\"Doug](\"https:\/\/thenypost.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/12\/gettyimages-1188312877.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=300)
![\"Pramila](\"https:\/\/thenypost.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/12\/gettyimages-1188313302.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=300)
![\"Donald](\"https:\/\/thenypost.files.wordpress.com\/2019\/12\/gettyimages-1171051478.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=300)