President Donald Trump ripped House Judiciary Committee Democrats Tuesday for launching a sweeping new investigation into alleged abuses of power by the president and sending an astonishing 81 requests for documents to individuals and entities, including his sons, CNBC reports.
In a bombastic speech to reporters he indicated that the White House won’t comply with the investigation and claimed House Democrats did this to impact his chances of winning reelection in 2020, The Hill reports.
“It’s a disgrace to our country,” he said. “I’m not surprised that it’s happening. Basically, they’ve started the campaign. So the campaign begins.”
“Instead of doing infrastructure, instead of doing healthcare, instead of doing so many things that they should be doing, they want to play games,” he continued.
Trump indicated he is unwilling to cooperate with the committee, citing what he described as President Barack Obama’s treatment of congressional probes during his time in office.
“They didn’t give one letter,” Trump said. “They didn’t do anything. They didn’t give one letter of the requests.”
Trump is partially right here. Sort of, Politifact notes. Obama and his administration faced a number of probes and the topics included operation Fast & Furious, Benghazi, Solyndra, and the Affordable Care website. But Obama didn’t face rigorous investigations into his personal and financial life because he was more transparent about his holdings and his personal finances weren’t complicated.
Writing for The Hill, Jordan Fabian speculates that the White House may try to invoke executive privilege or other measures to shield the documents or discussions from the Democratic-led panels that will be investigating his administration, campaign, and businesses.
Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that letters were sent to 81 people and entities including his two older sons. The wide-ranging probe into alleged abuse of power, obstruction of justice, and corruption targets key White House figures, the Justice Department, the Trump organization and the Trump campaign. Letters were also sent to WikiLeaks and several figures who have already pleaded guilty to charges leveled by special counselor Robert Mueller in his lengthy Russia probe.
In a statement Monday evening, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders slammed the “disgraceful and abusive into tired, false allegations already investigated by the Special Counsel and committees in both chambers of Congress.”
“Chairman Nadler and his fellow Democrats have embarked on this fishing expedition because they are terrified that their two-year false narrative of ‘Russia Collusion’ is crumbling,” she said.
“Their intimidation and abuse of American citizens is shameful,” she continued. “Democrats are harassing the President to distract from their radical agenda of making America a socialist country, killing babies after they’re born, and pushing a ‘green new deal’ that would destroy jobs and bankrupt America.”
The White House hasn’t formally responded to Nadler’s demands, but on Tuesday Trump accused Nadler and other Democratic Chairs of having “gone stone cold CRAZY,” saying they were harassing dozens of “innocent people” who have worked in the White House.
And of course, he melted down on Twitter, taking a stab at “crooked Hillary.”
Now that they realize the only Collusion with Russia was done by Crooked Hillary Clinton & the Democrats, Nadler, Schiff and the Dem heads of the Committees have gone stone cold CRAZY. 81 letter sent to innocent people to harass them. They won’t get ANYTHING done for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
The greatest overreach in the history of our Country. The Dems are obstructing justice and will not get anything done. A big, fat, fishing expedition desperately in search of a crime, when in fact the real crime is what the Dems are doing, and have done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
Here’s what Trump had to say in the video below.
Featured image courtesy of the video above
