Trump now minces no words when speaking about Pelosi, who has spearheaded the impeachment against him. But back in 2008, Trump was frustrated that Pelosi did not push harder for impeachment, according to CNN’s news anchor Wolf Blitzer, who unearthed an interview he had with Trump over a decade ago.
Back then, Trump, a private citizen and real estate mogul, complimented Pelosi, who was at the time the 52nd Speaker of the House, during the George W. Bush administration, calling her “impressive,” but also criticizing her for not taking down Bush, whose popularity suffered deeply over the Iraq War.
“I like her a lot. But I was surprised that she didn’t do more in terms of Bush and going after Bush,” Trump said back at the time. “It just seemed like she was really going to look to impeach Bush and get him out of office, which personally I think would have been a wonderful thing [...] for the [Iraq] war.”
Trump pointed out that former US President Bill Clinton was impeached by a Republican-controlled Congress over charges by Paula Jones of sexual harassment and for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Bush, however, who got the country into the Iraq War over unproven allegations of weapons of mass destruction, was not impeached.
“Look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant and they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense,” Trump said. “And yet Bush got us into this horrible war with lies, by lying, by saying they had weapons of mass destruction, by saying all sorts of things that turned out not to be true.”
Fast forward 11 years. Trump, now the 45th President of the United States, blasts Pelosi, now the 55th Speaker of the House, for her impeachment inquiry – which he considers a politically-motivated “sham” – while declaring that she “will go down in history as worst [sic] Speaker.”
On Wednesday, the US House will vote on Trump’s impeachment, as he is charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The president is expected to be impeached by the Dem-controlled House, but Trump is not expected to be removed by the GOP-controlled Senate.