President Donald Trump, at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday, delivered a warning to his political opponents on the heels of his acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial.
“So many people have been hurt, and we can’t let that go on,” Trump said at the bipartisan religious gathering.
Trump’s did not use the word “impeachment” in his opening remarks at the annual Washington event. But his message was nonetheless clear, and it appeared to single out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was sitting just a few feet away from him.
He also appeared to reference Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the only Republican to vote to convict Trump on the abuse of power charge. Romney has said in interviews that his faith guided him toward his decision to vote for Trump’s removal from office.
“As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” Trump said. “They have done everything possible to destroy us, and by so doing very badly hurt our nation. They know what they are doing is wrong, but they put themselves far ahead of our great country.”
“Weeks ago and again yesterday, courageous republican politicians and leaders had the wisdom, fortitude and strength to do what everyone knows was right,” Trump said.
Pelosi, who delivered a prayer to the crowd before Trump spoke, had personally announced the impeachment inquiry into Trump’s Ukraine dealings late last year. The Democratic speaker has frequently clashed with Trump, but has also repeatedly invoked her faith throughout the process, saying she prays for the president daily.
In her remarks to the breakfast crowd, Pelosi prayed “that we treat everyone with dignity and respect.”
Trump took the podium a few minutes later with a different message.
“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong. Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when they know that that’s not so,” Trump said. “So many people have been hurt and we can’t let that go on. I’ll be discussing that a little bit later at the White House.”
Those remarks came less than a day after Romney took to the Senate floor to explain his decision to vote guilty on the abuse of power charge against Trump. “My promise before God to apply impartial justice required that I put my personal feelings and biases aside,” Romney said before he cast his votes.
President Donald Trump holds up a copy of USA Today’s front page showing news of his acquittal in his Senate impeachment trial, as he arrives to address the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, February 6, 2020.
Leah Millis | Reuters
Trump is expected to take a victory lap over his acquittal at noon at the White House. But his celebration began before he even delivered his remarks at the prayer breakfast.
As he stepped onto the stage of the Washington Hilton on Thursday morning, Trump held two newspapers’ front pages up to the crowd — both of which prominently displayed the word “ACQUITTED” in their top headlines.
Trump has previously accused both of those papers, USA Today and The Washington Post, of publishing false stories about him.
Less than 24 hours before his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, the Republican-majority Senate voted to acquit Trump on two articles of impeachment. The votes on the chamber floor brought the impeachment proceedings, which began four months earlier in the House, to an end.
Trump was impeached Dec. 18 on articles of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, both related to his efforts to have Ukraine announce investigations into his political opponents.
Democrats accused Trump of abusing the power of his office by pressuring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to announce a probe into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about election meddling in 2016, while nearly $400 million in congressionally approved military aid to Kyiv was being withheld.
Trump sought to cheat in the 2020 presidential contest, Democrats argued, by coercing a foreign ally to smear Biden, his possible general election opponent, with the stain of a criminal probe. They also argued that Trump obstructed Congress by refusing to hand over any documents in the House’s probe, and by pressuring potential witnesses not to comply.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
