President Donald Trump is huddled with top White House aides and expressing concern that the media and public are focused on impeachment instead of what he perceives to be his many accomplishments as president, according to the New York Times:
“In his conversations with advisers on Thursday, Mr. Trump repeated once again that he could not believe he was facing such a predicament as impeachment. He said he wanted people to be prepared for a motion to dismiss and has hoped for one, even though Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has said the Senate will have to take up the matter.”
Trying desperately to change the topic from impeachment, Trump lashed out during a White House event, telling reporters:
“I did the biggest deal ever done in the history of our country yesterday in terms of trade,” he said, referring to (and exaggerating the size of) the China deal, “and that was the second story to a total hoax. Today, we just had passed the U.S.M.C.A. It’s going to take the place of NAFTA, which was a terrible deal, and the U.S.M.C.A. will probably be second to this witch hunt hoax, which hopefully everyone knows is not going anywhere.”
But despite Trump’s protestations, new and extremely damaging information about the attempted bribery plot with Ukraine continues to leak out, with Lev Parnas, a former associate of the president’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, giving multiple interviews in which he alleged that “everyone was in the loop” when it came to the Ukraine scandal and that Trump was actively involved in an attempt to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.
Another Trump fear is that his attorneys will fail to defend him with as much vigor as he thinks is necessary to assure a short, successful impeachment trial:
“At different times, Mr. Trump has also told aides he wants the opportunity to call witnesses he believes could help him politically, like Hunter Biden, Mr. Biden’s son, as well as the whistle-blower, a C.I.A. officer who first alerted the Intelligence Committee to Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign on the Ukrainian government.
“Mr. Trump, always concerned about optics and how things play, has also expressed reservations about whether his lawyers will be aggressive enough during the televised Senate trial.”
A tweet Trump sent out shortly after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was sworn in as the presiding official of the Senate trial would seem to perfectly express the rage and impotence the president feels as he awaits what is about to transpire:
I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT PHONE CALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2020
Featured Image Via Twitter