Putin Says Trump’s Impeachment Is Based on ‘Absolutely Made-Up Reasons’
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that President Donald Trump will not be impeached because Democrats went ahead with the process for “made-up reasons.”
Putin made the remarks during his annual press conference in Russia on Thursday. He said that since the Democrats “lost the election” in 2016 and were not able to oust Trump using accusations of collusion with Russia, they are now going about his removal “by other means.”
Putin also expressed doubts the Republican-controlled Senate would vote to impeach one of their own, saying, “I doubt they will want to expel from power their party representative based on what I think are absolutely made-up reasons.” Putin continued echoing Republican talking points (which are from Putin himself) and said, “It then turned out that there was no collusion and it could not form the basis for impeachment, and now there is this made-up pressure on Ukraine.”
Putin then seemed to imply that House Democrats were intentionally being dishonest with their charges against Trump and snarked, “But your congressmen know better.”
Early this month, on the same day she announced that articles of impeachment would be drawn up, Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear that, in the Democrats’ view, Trump’s Ukrainian scam has everything to do with Russia. “This isn’t about Ukraine. This is about Russia,” she said.
Pelosi then asked, “Who benefits from that withholding of military assistance?” and answered, “All roads lead to Putin. Understand that.”