Here's How Trump Spent The Day While Congress Debated His Impeachment
When the public phase of the impeachment hearings began on Capitol Hill at 10 a.m. Wednesday, President Donald Trump was at the White House, where, according to press secretary Stephanie Grisham, he was too busy with work to watch the proceedings.
Was he busy? Maybe. Whether he was working depends on your definition of work. Based on the absence of a Marine at the door, Trump wasn’t actually in the West Wing:
Marine at the door = Trump is in the West Wing working.
No Marine at the door = Trump is elsewhere. https://t.co/KY8ZNBw9OC— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) November 13, 2019
There was also a flurry of posts on the president’s Twitter account during the first hours of the inquiry, many of them featuring video clips of his congressional allies defending him, suggesting perhaps he was indeed keeping an eye on the proceedings.
All told, Trump’s account managed to retweet nearly two dozen posts during the hearing Wednesday morning.
From noon to 3:10 p.m. Eastern time, Trump was scheduled to welcome and meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. In that time, among other things, the two agreed to keep Syria’s oil and held a limited press conference in the Oval Office:
I don’t know how things are going on Capitol Hill, but here at the White House, everyone’s getting along great. #turkey pic.twitter.com/0cOcyVqypl
— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) November 13, 2019
When Trump suggested Erdogan address Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria, he awkwardly declined:
“I don’t feel the need to come up with longer statements here.”
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declines to comment on Turkey’s Northern Syria offensive during his joint press conference with Trump pic.twitter.com/muJUABUnSs— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) November 13, 2019
After the first photo opportunity, Trump invited Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to meet with Erdogan, prompting Grisham to again talk about how busy the president was:
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BEHIND THE SCENES: @potus has been in mtgs all day & this is his second press availability. HAPPENING NOW: Members of Congress & President Trump speaking w President Erdogan on important issues. Meanwhile, the dems continue their kangaroo court, wasting taxpayer time & money. pic.twitter.com/zqDUq01Yi9
— Stephanie Grisham (@PressSec) November 13, 2019
And yet another photo opportunity:
Sen. Lindsay Graham barely looked up during the entire spray with Turkey’s President Erdogan and registered his objections to Turkey’s actions, saying he hopes they can give Turkey an “American civic lesson” pic.twitter.com/XeSwGKqj98
— Vivian Salama (@vmsalama) November 13, 2019
At 3:10, Trump and Erdogan held a larger press conference, at which Trump singled out Emerald Robinson of the One America News Network for a friendly question.
Asked for his “general reaction to the impeachment hearings,” Trump responded:
“Are you talking about the witch hunt? I haven’t watched. I haven’t watched one minute. This is a sham, and it shouldn’t be allowed. It was a situation that was caused by people who shouldn’t have allowed it to happen.”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
