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President Trump may be the third American president in history to get impeached, but he’s the first to do it while holding a “Merry Christmas” rally.
Trump hit the stage Wednesday night in Battle Creek, Michigan, fired up with his usual gusto. Moments later, House Democrats back in Washington passed articles of impeachment against him for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.
And he poured out his scorn on Democrats.
“It’s perversion,” Trump bellowed, blasting them as “a bunch of fools.”
Trump focused his rage on the historic indignity of being impeached, after spending the whole day doing pretty much the same thing on Twitter.
Read more: It's official: Trump just got impeached.
And he vowed impeachment would backfire on Democrats.
“This lawless and partisan impeachment is a political suicide march for the Democrat Party,” he said. “The Democrats are lousy politicians.”
Back in Washington, Democrats accused Trump of being a clear and present danger to American national security and democratic legacy. They slammed him for bending U.S. foreign policy for his own political gain by pressuring a foreign country to announce an investigation of his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden.
But in Battle Creek, besides raging against the “Democrats’ phony, dangerous charade,” the president fired up the standard Trump show — and played the hits.
He insulted a protester as a “slob.” He claimed (dubiously) to have once been named Michigan’s “man of the year.” He boasted his 13-year-old-son Barron could get a bigger crowd than Democratic challenger Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and he joked about Air Force pilots who were better-looking than Tom Cruise.
The crowd even broke into chants of “Lock her up!,” three years after Trump defeated his 2016 rival, Hillary Clinton.
Trump has a history of easing the pain of some of the most difficult moments of his presidency with a big rally among supporters.
A year ago, in August 2018, on a day when two of his former top aides — former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and ex-personal attorney Michael Cohen — became felons within minutes of each other, Trump held a rally the same night during which he totally ignored the legal apocalypse erupting around him.
Read more: Trump totally ignored the afternoon’s legal apocalypse at his West Virginia rally.
Trump seemed to be vibing on the same restorative power of his fans’ adoration on Wednesday night — while experiencing perhaps the greatest humiliation held out for an American president in the text of the Constitution.
“Is there a better place to be in the world than a Trump rally?” Trump asked the crowd. “It doesn’t really feel like we’re being impeached.”
Cover: President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Kellogg Arena, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, in Battle Creek, Mich. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)from VICE https://ift.tt/2PYi3Xj
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