The White House said President Trump’s acquittal Wednesday in his Senate impeachment trial shows “full vindication and exoneration” for the president, and questioned whether there will be “retribution” for House impeachment manager Rep. Adam B. Schiff.
“As we have said all along, he is not guilty,” said White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham. “The Senate voted to reject the baseless articles of impeachment, and only the president’s political opponents – all Democrats, and one failed Republican presidential candidate – voted for the manufactured impeachment articles.”
The “failed” Republican was a reference to Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 presidential nominee who voted for one of the articles of impeachment.
Ms. Grisham’s statement said the inquiry was “yet another witch-hunt that deprived the president of his due process rights and was based on a series of lies.”
“Rep. Adam Schiff lied to Congress and the American people with a totally made up statement about the president’s phone call. Will there be no retribution?” she asked, referring to the lawmaker’s public version of the president’s July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine.
Ms. Grisham also said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “lied to the American people about the need to swiftly pass impeachment articles they dreamt up, only to sit on them for a month before sending over to the Senate.”
“In the Senate, the Democrats continued to make their political motivations clear – Rep. Schiff proclaimed the issues ’cannot be decided at the ballot box’ – proving once again they think they know better than the voters of this country,” she said. “This entire effort by the Democrats was aimed at overturning the results of the 2016 election and interfering with the 2020 election.”
She said Mr. Trump kept working for the American people “throughout this wholly corrupt process.”
“He spent his time achieving real victories for the people of this country, and the Democrats – once again – have nothing to show for their fraudulent schemes,” she said. “The president is pleased to put this latest chapter of shameful behavior by the Democrats in the past, and looks forward to continuing his work on behalf of the American people in 2020 and beyond.”
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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