President Trump on Tuesday claimed the sweeping investigation launched this week by House Democrats is the official start of the 2020 presidential campaign and stems from a refusal on the part of his political opponents to move past the 2016 election.
“It’s a disgrace to our country. I’m not surprised that it’s happening — basically they’ve started the campaign, so the campaign begins,” Trump said during a signing ceremony for an executive order focused on ending veteran suicide. “But the campaign, their campaign, has been going on for the last two-and-a-half years.”
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., announced Monday its broad probe into “alleged obstruction of justice, public corruption, and other abuses of power” by Trump. As part of the investigation, the committee sent demands for documents to 81 individuals, agencies, and entities.
Trump said the House Judiciary Committee’s investigation, as well as special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, amounts to “presidential harassment” and is “a shame.”
[Opinion: Byron York: House Democrats send message: Impeachment is on]
“Essentially what they’re saying is the campaign begins,” the president said of Democrats. “Instead of doing infrastructure, instead of doing healthcare, instead of doing so many things they should be doing, they want to play games.”
Trump also said the investigations into his dealings — including his finances, business, campaign and inaugural committee — are the result of Democrats’ failure to accept that they lost the 2016 presidential election.
“They cannot stand the loss. They could not stand losing in 2016,” he said. “I see it all the time. They just haven’t gotten used to the fact that we won a lot of states that haven’t been won by Republicans in a long time.”
