Trump is 'mad as hell' about a delayed Senate trial, Lindsey Graham says

(Image credit: Screenshots/YouTube/Fox News)

A day after the House impeached him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, President Trump was "still a little shellshocked," The New York Times reports. "Despite the clear momentum behind impeachment among Democrats in recent weeks, some of Mr. Trump's advisers tried to convince him — and themselves — that [House] Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not have the votes and might not even bring the articles of impeachment to the floor."

But Trump woke up Thursday "with the scarlet letter of impeachment marked with indelible ink on his page in the history books," and "however much the humiliation and the ensuing news coverage stung," the Times reports, "Trump was intent on not showing it — even in private." Trump polled his advisers about how to respond if Pelosi indefinitely delayed sending the articles of impeachment to the Senate, and "the answers varied," the Times says, "including trying to push through a trial regardless or arguing that he technically was never actually impeached in the first place."

By Thursday evening, Trump was "mad as hell that they would do this to him and now deny him his day in court," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Fox News.

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"For a man consumed with his legacy and legitimacy," Ashley Parker writes in The Washington Post, Trump "seems to understand the severity of his historical sentence. His tweets and pronouncements and public statements have the feel of someone trying to scream away the one thing that can't be undone," this rare moment "where he has faced concrete accountability for his actions." Impeachment, Parker notes, is "not something Trump can squirm his way out of, or cut a hush-money check to make disappear."

For her part, Pelosi laughed off taunts from Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.y), and other Republicans that she's afraid to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate. "Fear is never a word used with me," an upbeat Pelosi told reporters in her office Thursday. "I'm never afraid and I'm rarely surprised."

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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.