President Donald Trump held a surprise press conference from the Rose Garden Wednesday morning ahead of a meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The scheduled meeting lasted for only five minutes and President Trump walked out as Pelosi started speaking.
Just before leaving Capitol Hill for the White House, Pelosi accused President Trump of a coverup after meeting with Democrats about impeachment. Her comments did not go unnoticed.
"I just saw that Nancy Pelosi made a statement that 'We believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover-up. I don't do coverups," Trump said. "There was no collusion, no obstruction."
“The crime was committed on the other side. We will see how that all turns out," he continued. “This whole thing was a takedown attempt at the president of the United States.”
He went on to detail how the White House and his administration cooperated with the Mueller report and said he was transparent throughout the process. He then gave Democrats a choice: investigation or infrastructure.
"I walked into the room and told Minority Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi I want to do infrastructure, I want to do it more than you want to you do it," Trump said. "But you know what you can't do it under these circumstances."
"Get these phony investigations over with," he continued. "When they [Democrats] get everything done, I'm all set to let's get infrastructure, let's get drug prices down. In the meantime we're doing tremendous work without them."
"This was very sad," says @POTUS, saying his meeting with Pelosi and Schumer was set up for 11AM, but then he heard House Dems were having a meeting beforehand "about the "I" word." pic.twitter.com/IE3dVD5R92
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 22, 2019
"They want to make this a big deal, whether or not they carry the big "I" word out." @POTUS says he sees a danger: "If someday a Democrat becomes president and you have a Republican House, they can impeach him for any reason, or her. Any reason. We can’t allow that to happen." pic.twitter.com/xJ9hEwaStE
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 22, 2019
Pelosi responded to the President's remarks and the short meeting upon arrival back on Capitol Hill.
"We went in the spirit of bipartisanship on this," Pelosi said, adding that she wouldn't characterize the President's other comments.
"He just took a pass and it just makes me wonder why he did that. In any event I pray for the president and I pray for the United States of America," she said.
"What happened in the White House would make your jaw drop," Schumer said.