Donald Trump has bestowed a new title upon “crazy” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) amid the pair’s impeachment stand-off.
The president dubbed Pelosi the “most overrated person I know” in a New Year’s Eve tweet that summarized a wild year of political struggles between Trump and the House speaker. Trump wrote that Pelosi proved she was “all lies” and had “no case” against him with her sudden decision in December to withhold the House’s recently passed articles of impeachment from the Senate, Newsmax reported Tuesday.
Take a look:
Remember when Pelosi was screaming that President Trump is a danger to our nation and we must move quickly. They didn’t get one Republican House vote, and lost 3 Dems. They produced no case so now she doesn’t want to go to the Senate. She’s all lies. Most overrated person I know!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 31, 2019
“A very sad sight”
Democrats voted to impeach Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress late last year, but the “historic” rebuke was stopped in its tracks when Pelosi declined to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate. The impeachment is in limbo as Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have each refused to blink first in a partisan stalemate over the terms of the Senate trial.
While Pelosi insists that she will not move forward until she sees “fairness” in the upper chamber, Republicans have made clear that they have no appetite for a lengthy trial after what they have called a rushed, pre-judged process in the House. Trump and his Republican allies have wasted no time contrasting Pelosi’s previous urgency with her sudden delay, which they have said proves that she has cold feet and doesn’t really think Trump deserves impeachment.
The president has been hammering that theme in a series of tweets through the holiday break, which he has been spending at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, The Hill reported. In addition to attacking the impeachment itself, Trump has attacked Pelosi in very personal terms by drawing attention to homelessness and squalor in San Francisco, where her district is located.
“Nancy Pelosi’s [d]istrict in California has rapidly become one of the worst anywhere in the U.S. when it come[s] to the homeless [and] crime,” Trump tweeted last week, according to the New York Post. “It has gotten so bad, so fast — she has lost total control and, along with her equally incompetent governor, Gavin Newsom, it is a very sad sight!”
A year of feuding
When it comes to his impeachment, Trump has been eager to defend himself and has called for an “immediate” trial, according to the Washington Examiner, but Republican leaders appear to be zeroing in on a fast trial with few if any witnesses. But while Republicans are eager to move on, a fast trial could deny Trump the chance to hear testimony from former Vice President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), and the so-called “whistleblower” whose complaint sparked the impeachment proceeding.
Joe Biden has equivocated on whether he would comply with a subpoena, saying Monday that it would have no “legitimacy” and would be a “distraction” from Trump’s supposed crimes, according to Fox News, but conceding that he would answer it. Trump tweeted earlier Tuesday that Democrats will do “anything to avoid a trial in the Senate” to protect the former vice president from being exposed, saying Biden wants “no part of this mess!”
The impeachment standoff caps off a year of partisan feuding between Trump and Pelosi, who entered 2019 amid the longest government shutdown in American history. The tone for 2019 was set by their bitter fight over money for the president’s border wall, which ended with Trump declaring a national emergency to divert money from the Pentagon.
Trump’s relationship with Pelosi continued to deteriorate over the course of the first year of Democrats reclaiming their House majority, as Democrats pursued Trump with a series of investigations and repeatedly accused him of betraying his oath of office.
And impeachment has solidified the divide like never before: while Democrats have accused Trump of abusing his power to interfere in America’s elections, Trump and his Republican supporters see Pelosi as waging a war on American voters for electing a president who Democrats personally dislike.
Whatever 2020 brings, the Trump–Pelosi showdown will surely continue.
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