Trump Says He Isn’t Worried About Impeachment Because People Would ‘Revolt’
On Tuesday night during an interview in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said that he isn’t worried about being impeached because people in the United States “would revolt” if it happened. Reuters reports that the president defended himself, saying that he hadn’t done anything wrong to warrant an indictment.
Trump sat down with Reuters for an exclusive interview on Tuesday at the White House. Journalists asked Trump to address the payments made to two women with whom Trump allegedly had an affair to buy their silence during the 2016 election.
Congressional Democrats have said that if those payments are found to have violated campaign finance laws, the president could face impeachment. But Trump said that he isn’t concerned about the possibility.
“It’s hard to impeach somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong and who’s created the greatest economy in the history of our country,” Trump said. “I’m not concerned, no. I think that the people would revolt if that happened.”
Trump has acknowledged that he repaid his lawyer Michael Cohen the $130,000 that the lawyer paid Stephanie Clifford, known as Stormy Daniels, to not speak about her affair with the president. Previously, Trump had said that he didn’t know anything about the payments.
Cohen, on the other hand, has pleaded guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations in connection to the hush money payments made to the women.
Prosecutors believe that the payments violated campaign finance laws, and if the president was aware of them, he would be complicit in the finance violations. But Trump argued on Tuesday that the payments made to the women weren’t campaign contributions, but “civil” transactions.
“Number one, it wasn’t a campaign contribution. If it were, it’s only civil, and even if it’s only civil, there was no violation based on what we did. OK?” he said.
Trump has argued something similar on Twitter, saying that the payments were “civil” matter and attempted to put the blame on Cohen, saying if there was an error, it was his lawyer’s fault.
….which it was not (but even if it was, it is only a CIVIL CASE, like Obama’s – but it was done correctly by a lawyer and there would not even be a fine. Lawyer’s liability if he made a mistake, not me). Cohen just trying to get his sentence reduced. WITCH HUNT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 10, 2018
Reporters then asked the president about the fact that many of his colleagues had met with Russians during and prior to his presidential bid, but Trump pushed the question aside, saying that it was “peanut stuff.” He then used his familiar tactic of turning the conversation towards his opponent in the presidential race, Hillary Clinton.
“I haven’t heard this, but I can only tell you this: Hillary Clinton – her husband got money, she got money, she paid money, why doesn’t somebody talk about that?” Trump said.
