Not satisfied to let his 11,000+ tweets stand as a public record of his anger about partisan "Witch Hunts" and the impending impeachment, President Trump composed a six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today reiterating his many thoughts.
As we all know, Trump and his Republican colleagues continue to drive home the idea that the impeachment is not based on any bad behavior on his part, but is entirely based on Democrats' anger at his having won the election against Hillary Clinton in 2016 — which he refers to carefully as an "Electoral College landslide" in the letter, because as we also know he did not actually win in a popular landslide.
"History will judge you harshly as you proceed with this impeachment charade," he writes in a familiarly angry, scathing, rambling letter that repeats many of the sentiments and arguments he has made over the last several years on his platform of choice, Twitter.
"Past presidents have offered contrition as they stared down looming House impeachment votes," the New York Times writes, noting Bill Clinton's lip-biting apology in the Rose Garden following his impeachment by the House in 1998, and Richard Nixon's tail-between-his-legs resignation rather than face an inevitable impeachment. "But Mr. Trump was defiant and unrepentant on Tuesday. He accused Ms. Pelosi and her party of fabricating lies against him, saying that the speaker and Democrats were possessed by 'Impeachment Fever' [his caps]."
There are some unintentionally funny bits in the letter, too. He writes that Pelosi has "cheapened the importance of the very ugly word, impeachment!", whatever that means. And the letter feels very much dictated on the fly with little outside editing — it even contains all of Trump's favorite random capitalizations of words and phrases that he uses on Twitter like "Impeachment Hoax" and "Russian Witch Hunt." And he claims — hilariously!! — that he has been "far tougher on Russia than President Obama ever even thought to be."
It's hard to believe that this is our reality and our president, and that he will likely remain president in all this, and that he may even be correct in saying that Democrats in Congress will pay a political price for entering into this process.
But! The level of denial is so, so insane. He has heard that 49 percent of the country thinks he should be impeached, right, while 44 percent doesn't, and the other seven percent just aren't paying attention?
"One hundred years from now, when people look back at this affair, I want them to understand it, and learn from it, so it can never happen to another President again," Trump writes.
Never one to play in the muck of Twitter, Nancy Pelosi hasn't yet commented publicly on the letter. She did, however, 11 minutes ago, tweet about the Navy ship that's going to be named for San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk.
Before his work as an activist brought him to the SF Board of Supervisors, Harvey Milk was a Navy LTJG forced to resign because of his sexuality. Deeply meaningful to see construction finally begin on the @USNavy ship bearing his name. cc: @SecNav75 https://t.co/JcISfkPTsT
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) December 17, 2019
Update: Pelosi has responded, saying she didn't have time yet to read the whole things because she's been working, but she called it "ridiculous" and "sick," per CNN.
Related: Pro-Impeachment Rallies Tonight In SF and Oakland Ahead of House Vote