Trump Called Pelosi 'Impressive' While Saying She Should Have Impeached Bush in 2008 Interview
President Donald Trump has repeatedly slung insults and nicknames at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the months leading up to his impeachment on Wednesday, but a 2008 CNN video shows Trump praising the Democratic leader and openly wondering why she didn’t go after Republican President George W. Bush for an impeachment of his own.
Posting a minute-long clip on Twitter, CNN host Wolf Blitzer pointed to a 2008 interview he had with the then-reality TV personality and businessman, showing the future president saying that Pelosi is a “very impressive person” and that he was fond of her at the time — a far cry from the recent Twitter taunts and jeers about Pelosi being “the worst” and labeling her “Nervous Nancy Pelosi.”
“When she first got in and was named speaker, I met her. And I’m very impressed by her. I think she’s a very impressive person,” Trump told Blitzer at the time. “I like her a lot.”
Check out this exchange I had with then private citizen @realDonaldTrump on Oct. 15, 2008. We spoke about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and he then offered his thoughts about impeachment. pic.twitter.com/mXlsG9SjbB
— Wolf Blitzer (@wolfblitzer) December 18, 2019
RELATED: Donald Trump Impeached by House of Representatives Over Ukraine Scandal
In the video from 2008, Trump told Blitzer he wished Pelosi went after President George W. Bush for impeachment over the Iraq War.
“I was surprised that she didn’t do more in terms of Bush and going after Bush,” Trump said in 2008. “It was almost — it just seemed like she was going to really look to impeach Bush and get him out of office, which personally I think would’ve been a wonderful thing.”
“Impeaching him?” Blitzer asked.
“Absolutely. For the war. For the war,” Trump replied. “Well, he lied. He got us into the war with lies, and I mean, look at the trouble Bill Clinton got into with something that was totally unimportant and they tried to impeach him, which was nonsense. 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.”
RELATED: President Donald Trump Blasts Nancy Pelosi in Dramatic Open Letter Ahead of Impeachment Vote
In a 2016 presidential debate, Trump sparred with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the younger brother of President George W. Bush, over his brother’s legacy in the White House.
“Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,” Trump said, emphasizing his belief again that the Bush administration exaggerated their claims about “weapons of mass destruction” in order to seize American support for the war.
President Trump, 73, weighed in on his impeachment as he found himself in the hot seat in the last half of 2019.
In a furious open letter addressed to Pelosi on Tuesday, Trump said his impeachment was “nothing more than an illegal, partisan attempted coup” and that “more due process was afforded to those accused in the Salem Witch Trials.”
Trump has continuously bashed Speaker Pelosi, 79, throughout the investigation on Twitter. “She is the worst!” Trump tweeted on Tuesday, the eve of his impeachment. “No wonder with people like her and Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, D.C. has been such a mess for so long.”
Good marks and reviews on the letter I sent to Pelosi today. She is the worst! No wonder with people like her and Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, D.C. has been such a mess for so long - and that includes the previous administration who (and now we know for sure) SPIED on my campaign.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2019
RELATED: Trump Live-Tweets His Own Impeachment: ‘An Assault on the Republican Party!’
Investigators say Trump pressured Ukraine into launching investigations into his Democratic political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, in the upcoming 2020 election. According to the articles of impeachment, Trump abused the power of his office by bribing a foreign government with U.S. military aid for his own personal gain.
Trump allegedly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating Biden while withholding $400 million in military aid and a meeting between the world leaders at the White House. However, Trump continues to claim he did nothing wrong during the July 25 phone call with Zelensky that sparked the impeachment investigation.
Trump, who was officially impeached on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on Wednesday, will face a trial in the Senate to determine whether he’ll be removed from office. No U.S. president has ever been removed from office because of an impeachment; both President Bill Clinton and President Andrew Johnson were acquitted after their impeachments.
Trump’s trial is anticipated to begin in early January, where the Republican-controlled Senate is expected to quickly acquit the president.
