President Donald Trump secured an acquittal at the end of his recent Senate impeachment trial on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, but he’s still finding plenty to complain about anyway. This weekend, he launched into repeated Twitter tirades against a couple of those Senators who dared to oppose him during that Senate trial, including West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who’s a moderate Democrat (and isn’t actually up for re-election until 2024). Trump belted out that Manchin was supposedly dumb and an ineffective leader, but the Senator responded with a public statement pointing out that he’s the one — not Trump — who has actually been working to secure tangible benefits for Americans.
Manchin posted on Twitter:
‘Pres. Trump – no Democrat has worked harder in a bipartisan way in the hopes that you would succeed. The people of WV know exactly who has worked day & night for the last 5 years to secure their healthcare & pensions & it wasn’t you. I’ve read the transcripts thoroughly & listened to the witnesses under oath. Where I come from a person accused defends themselves with witnesses and evidence.’
I’ve read the transcripts thoroughly & listened to the witnesses under oath. Where I come from a person accused defends themselves with witnesses and evidence.
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) February 9, 2020
That last part refers to the president’s blanket refusal to allow absolutely any compliance with Congressional subpoenas for witness testimony from his administration’s officials. Following up on that, Senate Republicans — shortly before their final vote to acquit the president — voted down a proposal to call any witnesses at all for the actual trial. Down in reality, Manchin even suggested a vote to censure Trump, which would be a rebuke without the threat of removal from office, but Republicans are the ones who secured a fiercely partisan process.
They are really mad at Senator Joe Munchkin in West Virginia. He couldn’t understand the Transcripts. Romney could, but didn’t want to!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2020
Originally, before Manchin’s above-quoted post, Trump had called him a “puppet” and “weak & pathetic.” In the same post, he insisted that Utah’s Mitt Romney, who was the only Republican to vote in favor of conviction on either article of impeachment, is only worthy of “contempt & disgust!” He followed that up with a Sunday morning diatribe against Manchin, who he called — wait for it — “Joe Munchkin.” This situation features the president of the United States resorting to outlandishly petty insults.
Check out Twitter’s response to Manchin…
