RTThu, 23 May 2019 18:07 UTC
© Reuters/James Lawler Duggan/Jonathan ErnstSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi • President Donald Trump
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Democrats should 'find common ground' with President Donald Trump,
even as she called for an 'intervention' by his family and staff to save the country from him.Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday,
Pelosi gave a dizzying series of arguments for why Democrats should both seek closer cooperation with Trump and continue to attack him at every turn, going so far as to
claim the president wants to be impeached and is baiting the opposition party into trying.
The presser was meant to address an infrastructure meeting that Trump abruptly scrapped earlier this week, after
Pelosi had accused him of engaging in a "coverup" related to the Mueller investigation. Trump had informed reporters of the cancellation at a press conference in the White House's Rose Garden on Wednesday.
The California Democrat told reporters:
"The president stormed out, pounded the table, walked out the door. I pray for the president of the United States. I wish that his family, the administration, and his staff would have an intervention for the good of the country."
In the very next breath, however, Pelosi called for Democrats to cooperate with the White House.
"Of course [I can work with him]," she said. "I do think we have a responsibility to find common ground."
When a reporter asked whether Pelosi might be able to get along better if she refrained from "provoking" the president with insults and accusations, however, the speaker would have none of it.
Scrapping the infrastructure meeting was part of Trump's "bag of tricks," and her comments were not the real reason, she argued.
"You have bought into his excuse," she replied, wagging her finger. "I do not intend to [dishonor] my oath of office ... to protect and defend the Constitution."
In response, Trump tweeted the he was "extremely calm" during his brief meeting with Democrats, knowing that he would be accused of "rage" by Pelosi and the "fake news media."
Pelosi also continued to send mixed signals on the question of removing Trump from office, arguing that he undeniably engaged in impeachable offenses, but opposing actually going through the process as too "divisive" a step.
Comment: See what
RT has on the 'fiery press conference" held after Pelosi's tantrum as Trump goes ballistic:
In a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Trump defended his sanity and fitness for office, after it was questioned by Pelosi in the wake of a bipartisan meeting on infrastructure spending on Wednesday.
"Cryin' Chuck, Crazy Nancy ... I watched Nancy and she was all crazy yesterday." Trump added that he has been watching Pelosi for a while. "She is not the same person. She has lost it," he said. The president, meanwhile, remains "an extremely stable genius", by his own estimate.
Pelosi was quick to return the blow by picking at Trump's self-praise. "When the 'extremely stable genius' starts acting more presidential, I'll be happy to work with him on infrastructure, trade and other issues," she tweeted.
Asked to name those he considers to be guilty of treason, Trump went down a list of names that included former FBI Director James Comey, Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who ordered an investigation into Trump's potential obstruction of justice, as well as FBI agent Peter Strzok and FBI lawyer Lisa Page.
"They wanted an insurance policy so that should [Hillary Clinton], for any reason, lose, remember, 100 million to one, maybe he said 100 million to nothing. But should she lose, we'll have an insurance policy and we'll get this guy out of office. That's what they said and that's what they meant. That's treason. That's treason," Trump said.
He claimed that Democrats are attempting the same trick again by subpoenaing his financial statements and seeking his tax records. Trump argued that if there was any wrongdoing on his part, it would have been already uncovered by the $40 million Mueller probe.
See also:
Comment: See what RT has on the 'fiery press conference" held after Pelosi's tantrum as Trump goes ballistic: See also: