In a 56 Seconds, Trump Praises Nancy Pelosi, Defends Bill Clinton, Calls for Bush Jr’s Impeachment for ‘Lying’ over Iraq War
(EnviroNews Politics Desk) — Video footage from an interview in 2008 between President Donald Trump and CNN’s Wolf Blitzer has resurfaced and is raising eyebrows across the country. In the segment, Trump says he “[likes] Nancy Pelosi a lot,” that she should have impeached President George W. Bush for lying to the public over the Iraq war, and that the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton were “nonsense” and based on a “totally unimportant” premise.
The transcript of this section from the Blitzer-Trump interview reads as follows:
Blitzer: …Nancy Pelosi?
Trump: Well, you know, when she first got in and was named speaker, I met her, and I’m very impressed by her. I think she’s a very impressive person. I like her a lot! But, I was surprised that she didn’t do more in terms of Bush, and going after Bush. It was almost… It just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach Bush and get him out of office, which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing.
Blitzer: Impeaching him?
Trump: [Absolutely]. For the war. For the war.
Blitzer: Because of the conduct there?
Trump: Well, he lied! He got us into the war with lies. And, I mean, look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant, and they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense. And yet Bush got us into this horrible war with lies — by lying — by saying they had weapons of mass destruction — by saying all sorts of things that turned out not to be true.
Interestingly, lying to the American people was included in the articles of impeachment against President Richard Nixon. The Washington Post has been keeping a running tally of false statements made by President Trump since taking office. As of Oct. 14, 2019, WaPo reports the President “has made 13,435 false or misleading claims over 993 days” in office. Clause 8 of Article I accused Richard Nixon of:
Making or causing to be made false or misleading public statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States into believing that a thorough and complete investigation had been conducted with respect to allegations of misconduct on the part of personnel of the executive branch of the United States and personnel of the Committee for the Re-election of the President, and that there was no involvement of such personnel in such misconduct.
On December 18, 2019, President Trump, alongside Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, became only the third president in U.S. history to be impeached by the House of Representatives. Nixon resigned before the House voted.
Despite an ever-growing number of members in her caucus supporting impeachment, Pelosi (D-CA) had been firmly opposed to the process up to September 2019 — until the now infamous whistleblower dropped a bombshell complaint exposing a controversial phone call between Trump and newly elected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
As of December 23, the articles of impeachment against Trump still have not been delivered to the Senate, as Pelosi and the Democrats jockey for position in the upcoming Senate trial. The Speaker, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are locked in a juggernaut over whether witnesses should be allowed to testify in the trial. A recent Washington Post–ABC News poll suggest roughly 71 percent of the American people want to see a fair trial in the Senate where top Trump aides are allowed to testify.
Meanwhile, Trump and Pelosi have been engaged in an all-out war-of-words on Twitter and in the media as the country awaits the trial. Controversially, Leader McConnell and high-ranking Republican Lindsay Graham (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, have been vocal in cable news interviews about how they do not plan on being unbiased jurors. Senators are required to take a special oath for impeachment trials wherein they swear to deliver “impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws.” Senators are also not allowed to talk during the trial or they risk being arrested by the Sergeant at Arms.
FILM AND ARTICLE CREDITS
- Emerson Urry - Journalist, Author, Video Editor
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