South Lawn

5:15 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Okay. It’s pretty wet out here. We’re going to Hershey, Pennsylvania, tonight. We have a big rally — a lot of people, tremendous lines, great enthusiasm. There’s never been this enthusiasm, in my opinion, for the Republican Party. The Republicans have stuck together through the witch hunt. It’s a terrible thing, but even the Democrats — they couldn’t find very much because they put up two articles that, frankly, are very weak. And they’re very weak.

Also, they approved, today, of all days — we’ve been waiting a year — and they approved today the USMCA. And I call that the “silver lining” to impeachment. Because without the impeachment, they would have never approved it, in my opinion. The impeachment is the reason they approved it.

And interestingly, one hour after the news conference, they went out and did a news conference on the big trade deal — the great trade deal, one of the greatest trade deals ever made for our country. And the reason is they wanted to muffle down the impeachment because they’re embarrassed by it, and they couldn’t get the votes. And that’s exactly what happened.

So it’s a terrible thing when they do something like that. But now it goes to, I guess, a vote. And I assume they will probably — you have to have the votes. They’re very weak articles.

But, very importantly, today we get USMCA. And that’s going to be a great thing for our farmers, our manufacturers, for our — for just about everybody. That’s good for everybody, unions included.

I spoke with Richard Trumka. I spoke to James Hoffa. And we had good talks. That’s the union people. I did that a few days ago. We had some very good talks. And everybody is really loving the USMCA. So we’re very happy about that. Very, very happy.

Q Mr. President, sir, do you believe your impeachment is inevitable, sir? Do you believe your impeachment is inevitable?

THE PRESIDENT: Say it. You go ahead.

Q Do you believe that your impeachment is inevitable, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Is what?

Q That your impeachment is inevitable. Do you think you will now be impeached? The fourth in history — third.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think the Democrats — I can’t imagine they vote for it because we did nothing wrong. There was absolutely nothing done wrong. They’ve analyzed my conversation every way you can.

And when you talk about — you know, the word “favor” was mentioned, and it was mentioned — not me a “favor.” You just saw the way it was. And it was nothing to do with me; this has to do with the United States. The word was “us.” “Can you do us a favor?” Then we talk about the country, and we talk about seeing the Attorney General of the United States.

When you look at it — and that was just a part of it — it was a congratulatory call. And there were two of them. Nobody even mentions the other one. We had another one, where they won — originally, he won the election.

And I think it’s a disgrace that people can make impeachment out of nothing. That was a perfect conversation. If you looked at Mark Levin, he analyzed the conversation — one of the great constitutional lawyers. Many of them have. They were perfect conversations. There’s nothing to impeach on, and I think it’s a disgrace. I think it’s an absolute — I think it’s an absolute disgrace.

So, let’s say they vote on it. I don’t know when they’re going to vote. Who knows? All I know is they were very embarrassed by it, and that’s why they brought up USMCA an hour after, because they figure it’ll muffle it a little bit.

And if you look at — if you look at the poll numbers, the Firehouse poll just came out, and we’re way ahead of everybody in every state, every — you know, most of the — I think most of the swing states. We’re way ahead.

And you know what? I don’t know if that’s impeachment or the fact that we have the best economic numbers that we’ve ever had in our country. We have the best unemployment numbers and employment numbers. We have the best numbers we’ve ever had in our country. And so I think that has something to do with it.

You saw, on Friday, 266,000 jobs — new jobs. And other countries, all over the world, they’re not doing well. We’re doing great. We’re the hottest country in the world. So I think that has a lot to do with it.

So I’m going out to now — we’re going out now —

(Cross-talk.)

Excuse me. We’re going out now to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Some of you are coming, I assume. We’ll see you there. We’re going to make a comment about it.

Thank you all very much.

END

5:20 P.M. EST