WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump ripped into the ramped-up impeachment efforts on Capitol Hill as “BULLSHIT” on Wednesday, as lawmakers signaled that White House refusal to comply with their requests would be used as evidence against him.
“The Do Nothing Democrats should be focused on building up our Country, not wasting everyone’s time and energy on BULLSHIT, which is what they have been doing ever since I got overwhelmingly elected in 2016,” Trump tweeted as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff spoke to reporters on Capitol Hill.
“[G]et a better candidate this time, you’ll need it!” he added.
In a morning tweetstorm ahead of planned meetings with the visiting president of Finland, Trump called Schiff, D-Calif., a “low life,” blamed declines in the stock market on Democratic impeachment efforts and suggested staffers were inappropriately listening to his phone calls.
About 30 minutes later, a combative Trump lashed out at Schiff from the Oval Office, calling him “shifty” and a “dishonest guy” who “couldn’t carry” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s “blank strap.” Those words appeared to be a reference to “jock strap.”
“I won’t say it because they’ll say it was so terrible,” Trump told reporters, sitting alongside the Finnish president.
Earlier Wednesday, Schiff had said he was “deeply concerned about Secretary Pompeo’s effort now to potentially interfere with witnesses whose testimony is needed before our committee.”
“Frankly, they should look at him for treason,” Trump said of Schiff.
Trump also tore in the intelligence community whistleblower, whose identity is not known, at the center of his Ukraine scandal, calling the complaint “very inaccurate.”
When he was confronted by reporters with the fact that even some Republicans, like Sen Chuck Grassley of Iowa, had expressed concern over threats against the whistleblower, Trump said, “I don’t care.”
“Look, I think a whistle-blower should be protected if the whistle-blower’s legitimate,” Trump said.
Democrats, Trump said, “have been trying to impeach me from the day I got elected.”
“And they failed,” he added.
He then took some swipes at former Vice President Joe Biden, saying he has “never been a smart guy and he’s less intelligent now than he ever was,” before ending the rant with his feelings on the media.
“I don’t even use ‘fake,’ anymore,” he said, referring to his preferred nickname for the news. “I think I’m going to switch it largely to ‘corrupt news.’”
“And it truly is the enemy of the people,” he said.
The comments followed his Tuesday night suggestion that the impeachment inquiry process amounted to an attempted coup.
The president’s allies have struggled to mount an organized defense from inside or outside the White House in the week since Pelosi announced she was starting the formal impeachment process, leaving Trump’s Twitter feed as the main method of counter-attack.
House Democrats announced Wednesday that they would subpoena White House officials by the end of the week if their demands for documents related Trump’s July call with the Ukrainian leader were not met.
White House officials did not directly respond to the question of whether they would comply with the subpoena, instead focusing criticism again on the impeachment process itself.
“This is nothing but more document requests, wasted time, and taxpayer dollars that will ultimately show the President did nothing wrong. The Dems can continue with their kangaroo court, the President will continue to work on behalf of this country,” said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
After Pelosi spoke about her desire to work with Trump to pass legislation on drug pricing and trade, Trump tweeted that “it is just camouflage for trying to win an election through impeachment.”
Inside the White House, though, staffers have continued to try to work with congressional aides despite the feuding. Staffers for Pelosi on the Energy and Commerce Committee were schedule to meet Tuesday with White House aides to talk about drug pricing, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
