The president took a victory lap, and vented, in a wild White House speech.
Welcome back to the Impeachment Briefing. In a wild news conference in the East Room of the White House, President Trump responded to his acquittal. |
- President Trump celebrated his acquittal this afternoon, addressing a room full of supporters in a long White House appearance that alternated between a free-association monologue, a diatribe against the “evil” and “corrupt” Democrats who investigated him, a closing-credits sequence with shout-outs to his favorite Republicans and a round of current-events commentary.
- At one point he held up a copy of The Washington Post, which had the banner headline “Trump Acquitted,” and said he might frame it. “Now we have that gorgeous word,” he added. “I never thought that word would ever sound so good. It’s called total acquittal.”
- He singled out Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Adam Schiff, the lead House manager, calling Mr. Schiff a “vicious, horrible person” and ridiculing Ms. Pelosi for saying she prayed for the president. And he attacked Senator Mitt Romney, the lone Republican who voted for his removal, as a “failed presidential candidate” who used “religion as a crutch.”
- Many of the House and Senate Republicans who fiercely defended Mr. Trump in the inquiry were seated directly in front of him today, along with the lawyers from the president’s trial defense team and several cabinet members, including Attorney General William Barr. “I call them friends,” Mr. Trump said of the group, “because, you know, you develop friendships and relationships when you’re in battle and war.”
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“I’m really not a bad person,” Mr. Trump said about an hour into his speech this afternoon, his eyes searching the crowd for a response. |
He had returned to one of his favorite subjects: anti-Trump text messages sent by former F.B.I. officials. They had been just another part of the American government poised to take him down, he said, along with the agency’s “top scum.” They, too, had failed. |
After some aides discouraged Mr. Trump yesterday from responding aggressively to his acquittal, today became the time to let loose, to suggest that he had payback in mind. His appearance in the East Room of the White House, typically the home of somber award ceremonies, resembled the loose structure of one of his campaign rallies. |
Topics included: an extended recounting of the 2017 congressional baseball shooting, Robert Mueller’s performance at his July hearing, the range of the former New York Yankees second baseman Bobby Richardson, prescription drug prices, Democratic primary polling, Arizona politics and college wrestling. |
I figured the best way to understand Mr. Trump’s responses to his acquittal was to check in with my colleague Maggie Haberman, who has covered him for many years. |
Honestly, it was what folks should have expected: more than an hour of stream-of-consciousness for him to get his anger off his chest. It was also something of a bonding ritual for the president with specific members of the House and Senate Republican caucuses. He lavished individual attention on them as he thanked them for defending him during impeachment. It’s worth its weight in fund-raising and endorsement gold for most of those lawmakers. And he made examples of people who opposed him, like Senator Mitt Romney. |
A trend we’ve seen with the president this week, and especially today in two speeches he gave, is identifying these investigations as assaults on the nation because they are assaults on him and his family. Why do you think he keeps returning to the idea? |
Two reasons: He feels guilty about the focus that’s been put on his family because of his decision to run for office, and because members of his family have become MAGA celebrities in their own right. |
What is his general post-impeachment attitude? |
A little bit of visibility into that came in his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, when he gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh. That wasn’t anything we have seen before. He basically is doing what he can because he can. |
Once in 2017, when he was attacking Jeff Sessions, his attorney general, all the time, I asked a Trump adviser why he was doing it. That person said, “Because he can.” That really is the answer for many of these things with the president. |
We’ve talked before about impunity as a theme of Mr. Trump’s life, as a developer, as a celebrity real estate mogul and now as president. How does the impeachment result help us understand his broader history in public life? |
As a developer, he always treated laws and regulations in a way that a lot of New York developers do, as if they are obstacles to get around. That has colored his view of government. I don’t think this is any different. |
But the question is: Did he actually know he was doing something wrong with Ukraine? He continues to say he didn’t do what they said he did. A number of Republicans have been saying that what he did isn’t impeachable, even if it was wrong. But I don’t think he thinks that way. I think he thinks that he’s president and he’s going to do what he wants. |
How does he see himself now? Does he go into payback mode? |
He’s acquitted but he’s also wounded. The question becomes: How wounded is he? Does he extract a pound of flesh from Mitt Romney? That is, I think, the likeliest scenario. His response to this could hinge on retribution. You saw that with his tweet about Adam Schiff recently, and how Mr. Schiff “has not paid the price.” |
The moment he was acquitted, his campaign manager blasted out a statement celebrating Mr. Trump’s “vindication.” Is the result something that Mr. Trump will wield politically? |
The White House and the Trump campaign want to use it when they find it useful. But in general, aides would much rather focus on the economy and his accomplishments. He has things to run on. The acquittal could have some life in a campaign context, but likely only for a little while. |
He has a year left in this term. And then possibly a second term. How does impeachment affect him? |
I don’t think he is going to be any different than what he was before this. He’s 73. He’s not changing. He’s just not the kind of person who is going to heed the words of senators and act accordingly. That said, being impeached really bothers him and will continue to haunt him in some ways. After he fired James Comey, the F.B.I. director, he realized he’d touched a hot stove because it led to the appointment of the special counsel. So he didn’t replicate that kind of action. But how the aftermath of impeachment manifests, it’s too soon to know. |
Does impeachment have a future? |
The storm of impeachment has passed, but in its wake it left Congress in a potentially furious mess, with some Democrats and Republicans vowing to continue investigating one another. To understand what each side was up to, I talked to my colleague Nick Fandos, who has been covering the various congressional investigations into Mr. Trump for the past year. |
We could still hear from new witnesses. Representative Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Wednesday that the House would “likely” subpoena John Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser who was prepared to testify in the Senate trial. But Ms. Pelosi said today that Democrats have no plans to do such a thing for now. |
“The House Intelligence Committee has to make some important choices in the coming days: Will it keep its Ukraine investigation alive post-acquittal and try to subpoena John Bolton or move on?” Nick said. “But the House as a whole is weighing the same dilemma. Does it keep the pedal to the floor on oversight and investigations, or pivot to politically safer policy work on health care, taxes and other issues?” |
“Republicans have done a lot of saber rattling around investigating the Bidens,” Nick said. |
In November, Senator Lindsey Graham asked the State Department for documents related to Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president, when he was running anti-corruption diplomacy in Ukraine for the Obama administration. The November request appeared to mimic the kind of investigation that Mr. Trump had sought from Ukraine, which led to his impeachment. |
“I can’t imagine that will become a full-blown investigation,” Nick added. “But on Wednesday, two Republican Senate committee chairmen, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, sent a new request to the Secret Service demanding information related to the travel of Hunter Biden in service of an investigation into potential conflicts with his work in Ukraine. So we will see.” |
“Battles as big and bitter as this undoubtedly leave scars on their combatants, but you know, on Capitol Hill, life always moves on,” Nick said. “Every day brings a new vote and a new issue. So while I suspect Republicans and Democrats will continue to nurse grudges, I will not be surprised when they team up to try to pass a prescription-drug pricing bill and spending bills, and others.” |
| We’ll be back tomorrow for one final edition. I’m still eager to know what you thought of the newsletter. Email your thoughts to briefing@nytimes.com. |
