President Trump canceled a scheduled meeting on infrastructure with Democrats on Wednesday, saying he was upset about claims he engaged in a cover-up and Democrats’ use of “the I-word,” meaning impeachment.
“Instead of walking in happily into a meeting, I walk in to look at people that have just said that I was doing a cover-up. I don’t do cover-ups,” Trump said, speaking in the Rose Garden about 25 minutes after the scheduled start of the meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Trump said he was particularly upset about Pelosi suggesting he engaged in a cover-up during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
“I walked into the room and I told Sen. Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, ‘I want to do infrastructure. I want to do it more than you want to do it. I would be really good at that. That’s what I do. But you know what? You can’t do it under these circumstances. So get these phony investigations over with,'” Trump said.
[Related: Democrats ramp up calls for impeachment, but Pelosi pumps the brakes]
.@realDonaldTrump responds to @SpeakerPelosi, who he was scheduled to meet with today to discuss infrastructure.
“Instead of walking happily into a meeting, I walk into … look at people that have just said that I was doing a cover-up. I don’t do cover-ups.” pic.twitter.com/6Xc9MZi15X
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 22, 2019
On April 30, Trump and the Democratic leaders agreed to jointly push for a $2 trillion infrastructure package, with the details to be determined later. At the time, Schumer said that Democrats would be able to both investigate Trump and work together on infrastructure. “We can do both … the two are not mutually exclusive,” Schumer said.
In the Rose Garden, Trump said Democrats would have to drop investigations before he could work with them.
“They want to make this a big deal. Whether or not they carry the big I-word out,” Trump said. “We’re going to get everything done. We’re doing a lot without them. Let them play their games. We’re going to go down one track at a time. Let them finish up and we’ll be all set.”
President @realDonaldTrump says the Mueller investigation was “a horrible one-sided thing.”
“These people were out to get us. The Republican party and President Trump. They were out to get us.” pic.twitter.com/DOq94qtFvV
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 22, 2019
