On Tuesday, a day before the big vote on the Democrats’ impeachment articles in the House, President Trump sent a scathing six-page letter to the Democratic leader who would be overseeing the process, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, slamming her and her colleagues for their “unprecedented and unconstitutional abuse of power.”
Saying that the Salem witch trials afforded “more due process” than the Democrats’ partisan impeachment inquiry, which has failed to gain any Republican support, Trump said it is actually the Democrats, not him, who are “interfering in America’s elections” and who are “obstructing justice.”
“You are the ones subverting America’s democracy,” he said. “You are the ones obstructing justice.”
“This is nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup that will, based on recent sentiment, badly fail at the voting both,” reads Trump’s letter. “You are not just after me, as president, you are after the entire Republican Party. History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade.”
Pelosi was asked for her “reaction” to the letter Tuesday afternoon, and while she admitted she hasn’t “fully read it” just yet, she said she understands the “essence” of it — and it’s “really sick.”
“I don’t have a reaction. It’s ridiculous,” she told CNN Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju. Asked why she doesn’t have a reaction, she responded: “I mean, I haven’t fully read it. We’ve been working. I’ve seen the essence of it, and it’s really sick.”
Pelosi's first reaction to Trump's letter. "I don't have a reaction. It's ridiculous," she told me. I asked her why no reaction: "I mean, I haven't full read it. We've been working. I've seen the essence of it. It's really sick." pic.twitter.com/pPhvsb0axh
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) December 17, 2019
As The Daily Wire reported Tuesday, in his letter to Pelosi, Trump also slammed Pelosi for insisting that she “prays” for him all the time, a comment that even earned the mockery of “Saturday Night Live.”
“You are offending Americans of faith when you say, ‘I pray for the president,’ when you know this statement is not true, unless it is meant in a negative sense,” he said. “It is a terrible thing you are doing, but you will have to live with it, not I!”
“I have no doubt the American people will hold you and the Democrats fully responsible in the upcoming 2020 election,” Trump predicted. “They will not soon forgive your perversion of justice and abuse of power.”
Below is Trump’s full letter (or read it here):
The president has sent the speaker a six-page letter about impeachment. pic.twitter.com/LKrb1bBzwh
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 17, 2019
Here are the final two pages pic.twitter.com/amYFGAx890
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 17, 2019
The Democrats’ two articles of impeachment against Trump — for obstruction of Congress and abuse of power — are expected to pass in the House Wednesday but then die a swift death in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Despite being the minority party in the Senate, the Democrats are attempting to assert their will on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In a letter leaked to the press on Sunday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a series of demands, including a list of new witnesses Democrats insist on interrogating. In response, McConnell delivered a statement on the Senate floor Tuesday rejecting the demands and reminding the other side of the aisle about how the impeachment process works.
“We don’t create impeachments, Mr. President. We judge them,” said McConnell. “The House chose this road. It is their duty to investigate. It’s their duty to meet the very high bar for undoing a national election. McConnell then used Pelosi’s own words against her, noting, “As Speaker Pelosi herself once said, it is the House’s obligation to, quote, ‘build an ironclad case to act.’”