Trump claims he’s “too busy” to watch impeachment hearings despite spending entire morning tweeting about it
The public hearings for the official impeachment inquiry into President Donald J. Trump began today and he already appears to be cracking under the pressure. As he watches the proceedings unfold, powerless to stop them, he’s taken to Twitter in a pathetic effort to cheer himself up. Apparently lacking the energy to even come up with original tweets though, Trump resorted to quoting his television sycophants and retweeting some of his diehard supporters.
Trump started out by channeling far-right lunatic and popular conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who has called the impeachment inquiry a “partisan sham,” a phrase which far more accurately characterizes the kneejerk Republican defense of an obviously crooked president than anything the Democrats are doing.
In addition to quoting Limbaugh, Trump questioned why Schiff is allowed to “hand over cross examination to a high priced outside lawyer.” The answer, of course, is that Schiff is entitled to have a legal expert assist so that he can zero in on whether or not criminal wrongdoing was committed. If there’s nothing to uncover, Trump has nothing to worry about.
Ludicrously, Trump floated the possibility that the attorney in question may have previously worked for him and claimed that it would be a “conflict.” Since he would surely recognize the lawyer if that were the case and would be making more of a racket about it, one can safely presume this is nothing more than a cheap attempt to muddy the waters yet again.
“Millions of Americans will see what a partisan sham this whole thing is.” Rush Limbaugh @foxandfriends Also, why is corrupt politician Schiff allowed to hand over cross examination to a high priced outside lawyer. Did that lawyer ever work for me, which would be a conflict?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
Since no Twitter outburst from President Trump would be the same without a quote from one of the hacks over at Fox News, he included one. This time it was from the embarrassingly obsequious Steve Doocy of Fox and Friends
The Democrats have stacked the deck against President Trump and the Republicans. They have leaked out everything. @SteveDoocy @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
Trump then unleashed a three-part tweet quoting right-wing commentator Charles Hurt’s long-winded complaints about Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi who he accused of caring “more about power than she does about principle,” an incredibly hypocritical way to defend a president who tried to abuse his office to coerce the Ukrainian president into opening an investigation into 2020 rival Joe Biden.
The assertion that this impeachment process is “not at all what the Founders intended” is even more pathetic. A president as blatantly criminal as Trump using his powers to solicit personal favors from foreign governments is exactly why the Founders included an impeachment mechanism in the Constitution in the first place.
“Nancy Pelosi cares more about power than she does about principle. She did not want to go down this road. She realizes this is a huge loser for Democrats. The Founders envisioned the worst people being in politics, yet they couldn’t envision this. You have these people taking…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
…the most powerful tool the legislative branch has, Impeachment, & they’ve turned it into a political cudgel, which is not at all what the Founders intended. When you hear Schiff use all these words like quid pro quo, it is because they can’t specify that Donald Trump broke..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
….any laws or did anything wrong, and they have to move away from quid pro quo because there was no quid, and there was no quo. Ukraine got it’s money (3 weeks early), and there was no investigation.” @CharlesHurt @foxandfriends
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
Running out of things to say, Trump then blasted out two pointless all caps tweets.
READ THE TRANSCRIPT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
He then rounded things out by sharing a deeply unconvincing anti-impeachment video. Frankly, if this is the best he can muster his presidency is in serious trouble.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2019
The irony of this obsessive tweetstorm is that Axios’s Alayna Treene reported earlier today that Trump claimed he is “too busy” to watch the “witch hunt” hearings which he insisted are part of a “hoax”. He also claimed about Schiff is using “television lawyers,” a telling detail that shows our reality television still views everything as little more than tawdry spectacle. After seeing his morning Twitter behavior, one would be a fool to think he’s “too busy” to pay attention. Clearly he’s unable to think about anything else.
Trump on whether he’s watching today’s hearing, per pooler @michaelcrowley: “I’m too buy to watch it. It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax … I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers … you know, I’m not surprised to see it, because Schiff can’t do his own questions”
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) November 13, 2019
