WASHINGTON ― Two decades after President Bill Clinton apologized to the nation for the actions that led to his impeachment, President Donald Trump also apologized ― not for his actions, but for the “very evil and sick people” who put his family through “a phony, rotten deal.”
“This is really not a news conference. It’s not a speech. It’s not anything. It’s just … a celebration,” Trump said in the chandeliered and gold-curtained East Room, typically the site for joint appearances with foreign leaders and other official events. “The speech was a demonstration of pathology from start to finish,” she said. “He, more than anyone, ‘knows’ subconsciously that the acquittal is undeserved …. He will likely act with increasing belief in unlimited power and impunity.”
While Trump repeated some of his usual boasts ― including the baseless claim that the stock market “would have crashed” had Democrat Hillary Clinton won the presidency in 2016 ― the bulk of his off-the-cuff remarks were about the just concluded impeachment, which he claimed really began with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into his campaign’s links to Russia.
Mueller’s report in April 2019 found that while Trump had been eager for Russia’s help and had used it heading into the election, the special counsel’s team could not prove a criminal conspiracy. The report did find numerous instances that Trump had tried to obstruct justice by blocking the investigation, but Congress did not pursue impeachment.