President Donald Trump, following his acquittal on two articles of impeachment on Wednesday, lambasted Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats during a rambling post-impeachment press conference the following day. And he is being slammed in plenty of reactions on social media.
Aaron Rupar✔@atrupar
Trump demeans Adam Schiff and mocks Purple Heart recipient Lt. Col. Vindman
Aaron Rupar✔@atrupar
Trump slathers praise on Mitch McConnell, who gets a standing ovation
President Trump on Thursday celebrated his impeachment acquittal during a freewheeling White House speech in which he declared vindication and denied any shred of wrongdoing having survived the most perilous stretch of his presidency.
“This is really not a news conference, it’s not a speech. It’s not anything,” Trump said to a crowd of GOP lawmakers, Cabinet officials, family members and other supporters at the East Room of the White House. “It’s just, we’re sort of, it’s a celebration because we have something that just worked out.
“It’s called total acquittal,” said Trump, who held aloft a newspaper headline declaring him cleared by the GOP-controlled Senate. Continue reading.
It may look like a winning strategy today, but the election is still nine months awayOPINION — Don’t you just hate it when someone uses a sports metaphor to teach a life lesson? So do I, usually. But with the Super Bowl not a week in the rearview mirror, it would be impossible to ignore the concept of the punt — getting out of a tough situation by moving the ball as far as possible toward the opponent’s end zone.
If you’re playing against a Patrick Mahomes-led Kansas City Chiefs, you’re merely buying some time before the inevitable score. But senators using that tactic in an impeached President Donald Trump’s trial are no doubt hoping any payback comes late, or not at all.
For them, it’s a way to satisfy both their consciences and a Trump-supporting voting base. Continue reading.
The U.S. Senate has made its judgment in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, acquitting the president. Fifty two of 53 senators in the Republican majority voted to acquit the president on the abuse of power charge and all 53 Republican senators voted to acquit on the obstruction of Congress charge.
All 47 Democrats voted to convict the president on both charges. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was the only Republican voting to convict for abuse of power.
The Republican senators’ speedy exoneration of Trump marks perhaps the most dramatic step in their capitulation to the president over the past three years. Continue reading.
President Trump celebrated his Senate acquittal Thursday at a White House event that stretched more than an hour, expressing no contrition and calling Democratic leaders “vicious and mean” while portraying his impeachment as the continuation of scrutiny he has faced since he announced his run for the presidency in 2015.
“We’ve been going through this now for almost three years. It was evil, it was corrupt,” he told a packed East Room crowd. Trump expressed no remorse related to the allegation that he inappropriately pressured the leader of Ukraine to investigate his political rivals, despite some Republican senators calling his actions wrong.
“This is a day of celebration because we went through hell,” he said.
The ink was barely dry on President Trump’s acquittal when Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) announced they would be investigating Hunter Biden — just as Trump had wanted Ukraine to do.
In a letter sent Wednesday to the head of the Secret Service, the senators write that they are “reviewing potential conflicts of interest posed by the business activities of Hunter Biden and his associates during the Obama administration, particularly with respect to his business activities in Ukraine and China.”
Specifically, they are seeking from the Secret Service any instances when Hunter Biden traveled with protective security detail during the time his father, Joe Biden, was vice president, as well as when he flew on government planes. Continue reading.
I have sympathy for Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk radio host who announced this week that he had been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and wish him a speedy recovery. Cancer is a brutal scourge that has claimed members of the Media Matters family in recent years, and no one deserves the suffering this disease and its treatment inflict.
But Limbaugh received the Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump during Tuesday night’s State of the Union not because he shares a terrible disease with many Americans, or because of his admirable charity work, but as a reward for what he accomplished for the conservative movement and the Republican Party over his decades-long career.
The stunt was a diminution of an honor established by President John F. Kennedy for those “who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” It is nonetheless revealing that it was Trump who awarded Limbaugh the medal. You can draw a straight line between Limbaugh’s rise to prominence and his acceptance by the Republican establishment and the president’s own conquest of the party. Continue reading.
The Debrief: An occasional series offering a reporter’s insightsLet the voters decide. We can speak out against his behavior. And perhaps, just maybe, President Trump has learned from this whole impeachment episode.
Senate Republicans who’ve been uncomfortable with Trump for exerting pressure on Ukraine to launch political probes — but have declined to throw him out of office for it — have come up with a number of what they say are appropriate responses to Trump’s inappropriate conduct, if not impeachment.
But their answers to the question of how to chastise Trump for his dealings with Ukraine amount to little more than a slap on the wrist, again illustrating how Republican lawmakers have struggled to grapple with a president who, in their view, has pushed the boundaries of propriety. Continue reading.
Even with no witness testimony, a majority in the 100-member U.S. Senate indicated in some way that Donald Trump acted inappropriately when he pressured Ukraine’s president to dig up dirt on his political rivals. But on Wednesday, senators voted 52 to 48 to acquit him anyway on the charge of abusing his office. The Senate also voted to acquit him 53 to 47 on the charge of obstruction.
In December, Trump became just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. By historic numbers, the House accused him of obstruction and abuse of power.
While Trump and his Republican defenders have repeatedly claimed the impeachment was not bipartisan — ignoring that conservative Rep. Justin Amash left the GOP over his opposition to Trump and voted in favor — the vote to convict was bipartisan. Continue reading.
“Late Show” host reveals the only lesson the president has learned from his impeachment acquittal.“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert warned that President Donald Trump will only be emboldened now that he’s been acquitted in his Senate impeachment trial.
“It’s official: Nothing means anything,” Colbert said. “Right is wrong. Up is down. Missouri is Kansas.”
He said asking for foreign interference in an election is the “new normal.” And he cracked that Democratic presidential candidates have “no choice” but to ask for foreign help ― and did an impression of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asking Russia to help find the “pee-pee tape.” Continue reading.
