A sheet of paper containing US President Donald Trump's handwritten notes for his Rose Garden speech was caught on camera.
Trump notes captured by @jabinbotsford:
— Dan Eggen (@DanEggenWPost) 22 мая 2019 г.
“They want to impeach me over acts that they did”
“Dems have no achomlishments [sic]”https://t.co/WUGczy4y2c pic.twitter.com/ealXzJEFJM
The picture, taken by Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford, shows the notes held upside down which, when rotated, read "They want to impeach me over acts that they did" and "Dems have no accomplishments" (sic).
"I'm going to keep working for the American people," another note read.
Why doesn’t he capitalize the “i” word? pic.twitter.com/r0c5KNtyYU
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) 23 мая 2019 г.
On Wednesday, Trump appeared at the White House's Rose Garden to tell the gathered reporters he will not work with House Democrats on a massive $1 trillion infrastructure investment bill unless they end their numerous investigations against him. This was the same reasoning Trump reportedly used in a letter to Democratic leaders he sent on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, Trump met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, Trump then ended the meeting abruptly after speaking for several minutes.
"I've said from the beginning that you probably can't go down two tracks," Trump told the Democrats in the Oval Office. "You can go down the investigation track or you can go down the investment track… We're going to go down one track at a time."
In a letter to her House colleagues, Nancy Pelosi said: “President Trump had a temper tantrum for us all to see.” This is not true. I was purposely very polite and calm, much as I was minutes later with the press in the Rose Garden. Can be easily proven. It is all such a lie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 23 мая 2019 г.
Before meeting with Trump, Pelosi called for a special meeting of the House Democratic caucus, during which she made a remark, saying Trump is engaged in a "cover-up" operation. In his speech at the Rose Garden, Trump noted that while the meeting with Pelosi and Schumer was scheduled long ago, he was taken aback by the news about the Dem meeting convened to discuss impeachment.
Speaking to the journalists about the failed meeting, Trump said he told the Democrats he would love to work with them on infrastructure, an issue he called "an easy one."
"I told [Schumer and Pelosi] I want to do infrastructure, I want to do it more than you do, but we can't do it under these circumstances," Trump said in his speech. "Get these phoney investigations over with."
Zero is getting done with the Democrats in charge of the House. All they want to do is put the Mueller Report behind them and start all over again. No Do-Overs!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 23 мая 2019 г.
"I've done nothing wrong, so [I told my lawyers] let's be transparent," he said.
"The crime was conducted on the other side," Trump said in his speech. "It was a takedown attempt on the President of the United States."
After the publication of Mueller report which found no evidence of Trump's collusion with Russia during 2016 elections campaign — an allegation that Kremlin denied all along — the House Democrats initiated a series of investigations against Trump, probing possible obstruction of justice and Trump's tax returns, among other things. This time, Trump ordered his aides and counsels to skip their testimonies, which sparked a renewed wave of calls for impeachment among lawmakers.
