Donald Trump is still pushing his “no obstruction, no collusion” line no matter how many times it’s explained that “collusion” has no criminal statute and there are 10 instances of obstruction of justice listed in the Mueller report. On Meet the Press, in an interview airing on Sunday, Trump told Chuck Todd that he’s fine with being impeached, since he believes it will fire up his base ahead of the 2020 election.
EXCLUSIVE TODAY: @realDonaldTrump sits down for a one-on-one interview with @chucktodd. Watch their conversation this morning on @MeetThePress. #MTP #IfItsSunday pic.twitter.com/j6NjFNk49q
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 23, 2019
He also told Todd that impeaching him would be incredibly unfair, since he’s committed no crime. Actual, criminal behavior isn’t required for impeachment, but the Mueller report spells out many illegal acts by Trump during the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Trump believes he’s sufficiently convinced his voting base that the report released as a result of that investigation says things that it doesn’t say that impeachment would only drive them to the polls.
During the interview, Trump said:
‘I think I win the election easier. But, you know, I’m not sure that I like having it. Look, I did nothing wrong. I was spied on. What they did to me was illegal. It was illegal on the other side. I did nothing wrong. So impeachment’s a very unfair thing because nothing that I did was wrong. And if you look at the Mueller report, there was no collusion. This was all about collusion.’
President Trump tells @ChuckTodd that "impeachment is a very unfair thing because nothing I did was wrong." #MTP #IfItsSunday
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) June 23, 2019
When he was asked if he now regrets using the Wikileaks emails as a campaign talking point knowing that they were part of an illegal hacking campaign by the Kremlin, Trump said that was a long time ago (it was two and a half years ago) and that maybe he wouldn’t use anything like that in the next presidential campaigns, but he probably would.
‘Well, I, I wouldn’t have. But this was well-known. I think it was in papers. And, again, I’m going back now a long ways.’
When I asked Pres. Trump if he's going to tell Vladimir Putin at the G20 not to interfere in the 2020 election: "I may if you'd like me to do it, I'll do that." https://t.co/cge7BHcNoK
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) June 23, 2019
Despite repeated praise of Wikileaks in 2016, Trump also tried to say once again that he really doesn’t know much about Wikileaks other than that they have “a strange name.” He also said that he was “joking” when he brought them up during campaign rallies.
‘Let me tell you– WikiLeaks, et cetera, that’s not my deal in life. You know, in other words, I don’t know about WikiLeaks. It was a strange name. But there were stories about something WikiLeaks that they had information. And I say it in a joking manner at a speech. Joking. Everybody laughing. Everybody having a — And they made it like it was serious. No, I don’t want anything bad to happen to our country. Anything bad happens to this country, I will end it and I’ll end it fast. I don’t want any of that to happen.’
For the full interview, see video below:
My full Pres. Trump interview, soup to nuts https://t.co/czURhJ1dtz
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) June 23, 2019
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
