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- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats left a meeting at the White House absolutely furious with President Donald Trump‘s refusal to work on infrastructure as long as multiple investigations mounted against him.
- "He came up with this pre-planned excuse. It’s clear this was not a spontaneous move on the president’s part. It was planned," Schumer told reporters in the Capitol.
- Pelosi characterized Trump as lacking confidence and disrespectful of "Congress and the White House working together."
- Moments after the meeting, Trump took to the Rose Garden to demand an end to the many investigations Democrats are conducting. White House staff handed out fact sheets about the special counsel investigation, which Trump has routinely characterized as a witch hunt.
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WASHINGTON — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats left a meeting at the White House absolutely furious with President Donald Trump over refusal to work on infrastructure as long as multiple investigations are mounted against him.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the meeting a ruse, describing the scene as a setup for Trump to air his grievances, tell off the Democrats, and immediately depart for a speech in the White House Rose Garden to rail against the probes into his administration.
Read more: Trump torches Pelosi at a fiery surprise press conference in a brewing impeachment fight
"He came up with this pre-planned excuse. It’s clear this was not a spontaneous move on the president’s part. It was planned," Schumer told reporters in the Capitol. "When we got in the room the curtains were closed. The president — there was a place for him at the front so he could stand and attempt to tell us why he wouldn’t do infrastructure. And of course then he went to the Rose Garden with prepared signs that had been printed up long before our meeting."
"He is looking for every excuse whether it was let’s do trade first, or whether it was he’s not going to pay for any funding, or whether today that there are investigations going on," Schumer added. "Hello, there were investigations going on three weeks ago when we met and he still met with us."
Pelosi characterized Trump as lacking confidence and disrespectful of "Congress and the White House working together."
"He just took a pass," Pelosi said. "And it makes me wonder why he did that."
Moments after the meeting, Trump took to the Rose Garden to demand an end to the many investigations Democrats are conducting. White House staff handed out fact sheets about the special counsel investigation, which Trump has routinely characterized as a witch hunt.
Trump also said impeachment proceedings, if they were to begin, would set a dangerous precedent for future presidents, regardless of political party.
"There’s a danger here," he said. "If someday a Democrat becomes president, and you have a Republican House, they can impeach him for any reason — or her."
Read more: Nancy Pelosi: ‘The president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up’
The tense back and forth between Trump and Democratic congressional leaders is rapidly approaching a boiling point. Each day, more Democrats are demanding impeachment proceedings to begin as the White House stonewalls investigations and oversight probes.
But Pelosi and other top Democrats are still trying to tamp down on impeachment talk, even as Trump refuses to cooperate with both oversight and any legislative agenda items like infrastructure.
See Also:
- Trump says he won’t work with Democrats until they drop their ‘phony investigations’ into him
- Trump torches Pelosi at a fiery surprise press conference in a brewing impeachment fight
- Nancy Pelosi: ‘The president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up’
Source: Business Insider – jperticone@businessinsider.com (Joe Perticone)