Pelosi shakes her head at Trump's 'ridiculous' and 'really sick' impeachment rant

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published 18 December 2019

President Trump seems to have put a lot of effort into the six-page letter he sent House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday, a day before the House will vote to impeach him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. "Trump worked on the letter for more than a week, revising drafts with policy adviser Stephen Miller and legislative affairs director Eric Ueland," The Washington Post reports, and he "did not want White House lawyers to review it until the final stages."

The Post characterizes the final product, released on White House stationary and frequently factually inaccurate, as "a rambling and rageful letter" in which Trump called the impeachment process "invalid," "spiteful," "egregious," "meritless," "terrible," "disingenuous," "baseless," "preposterous," "dangerous," "fake," "fantasy," and "illegal." Trump accused Pelosi, among other things, of fake praying. Pelosi told CNN she hadn't yet read the entire letter, as she'd been busy shepherding a $1.4 trillion spending package through the House, but from what she gathered, it's "ridiculous" and "really sick." (Watch at the 5-minute mark.)

CNN's Wolf Blitzer described Trump's impeachment venting as an "angry, rambling letter," CBS's Major Garrett said it "had the seething, ranting hallmarks of a long-form presidential tweet," and MSNBC's Chris Hayes called it "absolutely unhinged, deranged."

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Juan Williams was the first one to bring up Trump's letter during Fox News The Five's discussion of how Republicans are winning impeachment, calling the letter "essentially a scream from a guilty man." Nobody agreed with him, and Greg Gutfeld told Williams he's acting like Trump's "own words, when they are loud or aggressive or funny, are somehow proof of guilt."

An anonymous White House official told Politico that despite what tone you might see in Trump's letter, the president isn't "frustrated" at being impeached. "Why would he be frustrated if there's not a single Republican that is going to vote for his impeachment? He won," the official argued. And as for his personal attacks on Pelosi, "he's trolling her now. ... We watched for a year and everybody said, 'Oh she's so powerful now, she's so brilliant.' Show me one power move that she's made. Show me one action that she prevailed on this year. I'm serious."

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.