Trump uses the White House podium to deliver a wild, off-script campaign-style rant against Mueller, Democrats, and 'dirty cops'
- President Donald Trump took a victory lap on Thursday after Senate Republicans voted to acquit him of the two charges against him following a bitter impeachment trial.
- "It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops," Trump said of his impeachment trial. "It was leakers, liars, and this should never, ever happen to another president, ever."
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President Donald Trump on Thursday gave a speech to celebrate the Republican-controlled Senate voted to acquit him of both charges against him following a bitter impeachment trial.
Trump framed his impeachment as a "war," accused Democrats of treating him "unbelievably unfairly," and blamed "dirty" intelligence officials, including former FBI Director James Comey.
"It was evil, it was corrupt, it was dirty cops," Trump said. "It was leakers, liars, and this should never, ever happen to another president, ever. I don't know if other presidents would have been able to take it."
The president has repeatedly targeted and threatened House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who helped prosecute the case for impeachment, and the intelligence community whistleblower who lodged a formal complaint last summer that helped iniate the impeachment inquiry.
Late last month, Trump warned that Schiff "has not paid the price, yet, for what he has done to our Country!" and said he was corrupt and "probably a very sick man."
"The whistleblower is a disgrace to our country. A disgrace. And the whistleblower, because of that, should be revealed," Trump told reporters in November.
Trump's response to his acquittal is a stark contrast to the apologetic response former President Bill Clinton delivered in the wake of his own Senate acquittal following his 1999 impeachment trial.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 52-48 to acquit Trump of the abuse of power charge and 53-47 to acquit him of the obstruction charge.
For weeks, the president's lawyers have claimed the impeachment process against Trump was a partisan "sham." The White House was also known to have been courting some Democratic swing votes before the final vote, like Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, in hopes of a bipartisan acquittal.
But in the end, Manchin sided with the rest of the Senate Democratic caucus to call for Trump's removal.
Meanwhile, Romney's vote to convict made Trump's impeachment the first time in US history that a member of the president's own party voted to remove him from office, resulting in a bipartisan vote for conviction. It was also the first time that the entire opposing party voted to convict the president.