Donald Trump phoned Nancy Pelosi and asked her if she really intended to impeach him for pressuring the Ukrainian government to find dirt on Joe Biden.
That’s according to a new book by Washington Post journalists Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan. Trump on Trial reveals the President called the Speaker of the House on 24 September, 2019 – just before the impeachment inquiry began.
“The phone rang. Her assistant said the White House was calling. Hold for the president. At 8:16 a.m., Trump came on the line” the book recounts.
“He was phoning from his Trump Tower penthouse in New York. In two hours, he would address the U.N. General Assembly and then meet separately with several world leaders. But foreign policy wasn’t the reason for his call. He told Pelosi he wanted to talk about guns.”
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Trump then turned to the whistleblower complaint which launched the impeachment hearing and would go on to claim he had exerted no pressure on Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky.
“Are you really going to impeach me?” Trump reportedly asked Pelosi.
“The Senate will never convict. You don’t really want to do this,” he said.
He then repeated his line about how “perfect” his call with Zelensky was.
“Literally, you would be impressed by my lack of pressure… Why would I say something bad?” Trump said. “It was 100 percent perfect. I didn’t ask him for anything.”
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Darragh Roche is a journalist covering U.S. politics and media
