Trump takes victory lap in speech after impeachment acquittal

WASHINGTON — A day after the Senate failed to convict him on two articles of impeachment, President Donald Trump struck back at his “enemies” at the National Prayer Breakfast in the morning and during remarks later in the East Room of the White House.

Trump was unsparing in his criticism of the people who impeached him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, which were dismissed Wednesday by the Senate.

At the 68th National Prayer Breakfast, Trump brandished two newspaper front pages with headlines that included the word “acquitted” as attendees showered him with applause.

“Weeks ago, and again yesterday, courageous Republican politicians and leaders had the wisdom, the fortitude, and strength to do what everyone knows was right,” Trump told the breakfast. “I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say, ‘I pray for you,’ when they know that that’s not so,” Trump told the crowd.

On Wednesday, citing his impeachment oath and his religious faith, Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney cast the lone GOP vote to remove Trump from office. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has said that as a Catholic, she does not hate the president but rather prays for him.

Pelosi was in the audience at the breakfast to hear Trump’s reprimand.

Not everyone reacted positively to Trump’s comments.

“It was the opposite of prayer,” said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest, calling Trump’s remarks “an exercise in spite, contempt and vanity.”

East Room rally

Later, the president spent more than an hour venting about the impeachment charges levied by the House and his Senate trial, thanking allies in a packed East Room filled with elated supporters.

At one point, Trump called Pelosi “a horrible person” before adding, “I doubt she prays at all.”

During a news conference after Trump’s remarks, Pelosi said, “He’s talking about things that he knows nothing about, faith and prayer.”

Pelosi also said that she ripped up a copy of Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night because Trump “shredded the truth with his speech.”

At the East Room event, Trump bitterly denounced the impeachment. “It was evil, it was corrupt,” Trump declared at the White House. “This should never ever happen to another president, ever.”

“We went through hell, unfairly. We did nothing wrong,” he added.

Trump used an expletive about the Russian probe into meddling in the 2016 election, which was censored in some network’s closed captioning text. Continuing the theme, Trump assailed “dirty cops” and the “scum” at the top of the FBI.

“And if I didn’t fire (then-FBI Director) James Comey, we would have never found out this stuff. Because when I fired that sleazebag, all hell broke out.”

Yet it was Trump’s firing of Comey in May 2017 that set in motion the decision to appoint Robert Mueller special counsel. Originally, the White House maintained Trump fired Comey because he was “not able to effectively lead the bureau” because of his handling of an FBI probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

After Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt that he fired Comey because “Russia is a made-up story,” then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced Mueller would take the helm of the Russian probe.

“Clearly not a teleprompter speech,” Fox News anchor Brett Baier tweeted Thursday.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., observed, “For any Republicans who were deluded enough to think Trump has ‘learned’ from the impeachment process, they got their answer at his ‘Dear Leader’ gather in the East Room today.”

But former game show host Chuck Woolery defended the president. “Media says, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this.’ I agree, we finally have someone, Trump, who will and does stand up for us. It’s why we elected him you dolts.”

Trump’s comments Thursday were a clear sign the post-impeachment Trump is emboldened like never before as he barrels ahead in his re-election fight with a united Republican Party behind him. And it stood in stark contrast to the apology offered by Bill Clinton in the aftermath of his own impeachment acquittal in 1999.

Clinton said then in a White House address: “I want to say again to the American people how profoundly sorry I am for what I said and did to trigger these events and the great burden they have imposed on the Congress and on the American people.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at DSaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this story.