President Trump said Thursday that impeachment is a “filthy” word and asserted that special counsel Robert Mueller is a “never Trumper” who shouldn’t have been chosen to investigate him.
Asked by a reporter whether he expects to be impeached, the president replied, “I don’t see how. It’s a dirty, filthy, disgusting word. It’s a giant presidential harassment.”
Noting that the Constitution provides for impeaching a president for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” Mr. Trump said, “There was no crime. There was no high crime, and there was no misdemeanor. So how do you impeach based on that?”
House Democrats raised their clamor for impeachment Wednesday after Mr. Mueller delivered a televised statement wrapping up his two-year investigation. While he found no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016, Mr. Mueller also said he could not exonerate the president of possible obstruction.
The president said Mr. Mueller was “conflicted.”
“Robert Mueller should have never been chosen,” the president said, adding that he had a previous business dispute with him.
“He wanted to be the FBI director, and I said no,” the president said of Mr. Mueller “We had a business dispute, not a nice one. He wanted the FBI job and he didn’t get it. And the next day he was chosen as the special counsel. I think Mueller is a true ’never-Trumper.’”
Mr. Trump also questioned why the special counsel didn’t investigate former FBI officials such as Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, lovers who exchanged text messages indicating that the investigation of Mr. Trump was their “insurance policy” in case Democrat Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election.
The president said he believes he is now living through the drawn-out effects of that “insurance policy” against him.
’In the end, I will consider what’s happening now one of my greatest achievements — exposing this corruption,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ve exposed corruption like nobody knew existed.”
The president also insisted to reporters, “No, Russia did not help me get elected.”
Earlier Thursday, the president had tweeted “I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist.” The tweet was later deleted.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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