‘It’s a witch hunt, it’s a hoax’: Trump downplays moment as impeachment hearings open

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"2">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>US president Donald Trump said he was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;too busy” doing the people’s business to watch the impeachment hearings that imperil his presidency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads1--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But even as Mr Trump tried to suggest he was above the fray&comma; the president tweeted two dozen times before noon laying out his grievances about the process playing out on the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And Mr Trump could not resist taking a swipe at one of his political foes as he sat next to another world leader in the Oval Office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;It’s a witch hunt&comma; it’s a hoax&comma; I’m too busy to watch it&comma;” Mr Trump told reporters&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There’s nothing there&period; I see they’re using lawyers that are television lawyers&comma; they took some guys off television&period; You know&comma; I’m not surprised to see it&comma; because Schiff can’t do his own questions&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That was a reference to Adam Schiff&comma; the House intelligence committee chairman overseeing the impeachment hearings on Capitol Hill&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The public impeachment hearings began on Wednesday with two career public servants raising their hands and swearing an oath to the truth&comma; not the presidency&comma; representing an integral part of the system of checks and balances envisioned by the Founding Fathers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump has pushed back vigorously on the impeachment inquiry&comma; insisting he did nothing wrong in his dealings with Ukraine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;New hoax&period; Same swamp&comma;” read one tweet from the White House that Mr Trump retweeted as the proceedings began&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads2--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"550" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">New hoax&period; Same swamp&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;6byw3BVxFR">pic&period;twitter&period;com&sol;6byw3BVxFR<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; The White House &lpar;&commat;WhiteHouse&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;WhiteHouse&sol;status&sol;1194615176823218176&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">November 13&comma; 2019<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He quoted his defenders and lashed out at the first witnesses to testify publicly&comma; declaring William Taylor&comma; the charge d’affaires in Ukraine&comma; and George Kent&comma; a career diplomat&comma; as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;NEVER TRUMPERS&excl;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Taylor and Mr Kent worked for Republican and Democratic administrations&period; There is no evidence that either engaged in partisan activity opposing Mr Trump&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; the president tweeted or retweeted more than 24 times before sitting down with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan&comma; circulating a video in which Mr Trump deemed the impeachment proceedings &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the single greatest scam in the history of American politics”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads3--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Our country is at stake like never before&comma;” Mr Trump said in the video&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;They’re trying to stop me&comma; because I’m fighting for you&period; And I’ll never let that happen&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;144124" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-144124" style&equals;"width&colon; 600px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-144124" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;londonglossy&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;11&sol;D06907B1-3B1C-4D3A-B09A-1F0E6A32D14C&period;jpeg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"400" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-144124" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">President Donald Trump met with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the first day of the public impeachment hearings<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump and Mr Erdogan were to a joint news conference later in the day&comma; just weeks after Mr Trump’s decision to pull most US forces out of Syria led to a violent Turkish invasion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Democrats have been trying to make the case that the president tried to extort a foreign nation&comma; Ukraine&comma; to investigate a political rival&comma; former vice president Joe Biden&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But even if the House ultimately votes to make Mr Trump only the third American president to be impeached&comma; few expect the Republican-controlled Senate to eventually remove Mr Trump from office&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although a number of the president’s advisers believe that impeachment could be a political winner for Mr Trump on the campaign trail next year&comma; the president has reacted angrily to the probe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He defends his summer phone call with Ukraine’s leader&comma; which is at the heart of the inquiry&comma; as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;perfect” while deriding the impeachment effort as a conspiracy among Democrats and the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;deep state”&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump allies seemed to settle on two talking points&colon; that the hearings were &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;boring” and that the Ukraine matter was not an impeachable offence but a foreign policy disagreement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"550" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">READ THE TRANSCRIPT&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; Donald J&period; Trump &lpar;&commat;realDonaldTrump&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;realDonaldTrump&sol;status&sol;1194608581590564865&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">November 13&comma; 2019<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<blockquote class&equals;"twitter-tweet" data-width&equals;"550" data-dnt&equals;"true">&NewLine;<p lang&equals;"en" dir&equals;"ltr">BEHIND THE SCENES&colon; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;POTUS&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">&commat;potus<&sol;a> has been in mtgs all day &amp&semi; this is his second press availability&period; HAPPENING NOW&colon; Members of Congress &amp&semi; President Trump speaking w President Erdogan on important issues&period; Meanwhile&comma; the dems continue their kangaroo court&comma; wasting taxpayer time &amp&semi; money&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;t&period;co&sol;zqDUq01Yi9">pic&period;twitter&period;com&sol;zqDUq01Yi9<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi; Stephanie Grisham &lpar;&commat;PressSec&rpar; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;PressSec&sol;status&sol;1194700395928588288&quest;ref&lowbar;src&equals;twsrc&percnt;5Etfw">November 13&comma; 2019<&sol;a><&sol;p><&sol;blockquote>&NewLine;<p><script async src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;platform&period;twitter&period;com&sol;widgets&period;js" charset&equals;"utf-8"><&sol;script><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads4--><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham hit on both&comma; tweeting &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This sham hearing is not only boring&comma; it is a colossal waste of taxpayer time &amp&semi; money&period; Congress should be working on passing USMCA&comma; funding our govt &amp&semi; military&comma; working on reduced drug pricing &amp&semi; so much more&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She went on to write&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Dems star witnesses can’t provide any first hand knowledge of any wrongdoing by &commat;POTUS&period; Their own testimony contradicts the Dems false quid pro quo narrative&period; These are essentially two bureaucrats with a foreign policy gripe&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Trump campaign began blasting out rapid response rebuttals&comma; one claiming that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the Democrats lie and slander President Trump” and made a fundraising appeal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Although Mr Trump has teased that he will soon release the transcript of his April phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky&comma; White House officials are not confirming that any such release is forthcoming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>That first call to Mr Zelenskiy is widely known to have been largely a congratulatory conversation after Mr Zelensky’s election&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It was the rough transcript of Mr Trump’s second call with Mr Zelensky&comma; in July&comma; that prompted a whistleblower’s complaint&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><&excl;--Ads5--><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed186005653">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; 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