Trump, Pelosi trade barbs as impeachment talk stirs anger

WASHINGTON: Democratic congressional leader Nancy Pelosi says Donald Trump is angry that her party is not rushing to impeach him, as the relationship between the rivals reaches new lows.

Thursday was the second straight day of a very public war of words between Trump and the speaker of the House of Representatives, who earlier questioned the president´s mental fitness for office and expressed hope that those close to Trump would stage an intervention “for the good of the country.”

Trump responded by branding Pelosi “crazy Nancy,” in what appeared to be the first time he has ascribed a pejorative nickname to the woman who is his congressional nemesis. The president later tweeted a Fox News video of Pelosi that had been edited to focus on sections of a speech in which she stuttered and mispronounced certain words, with the caption “Pelosi stammers through news conference.”

Another video of Pelosi shared by Trump´s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in which her speech was slowed down to give the impression she was drunkenly slurring her words had been viewed 2.3 million times. The back-and-forth attacks are highlighting the bitter feud that has swelled since the release last month of the special counsel´s report on Russian interference in the 2016 US election. According to Pelosi, Trump´s strategy is to get his opponents to commit themselves to impeachment — a process that would almost certainly pass in the House, and then fail in the Republican-controlled Senate, ultimately energizing Trump´s core voters during his re-election bid.

“The White House is just crying out for impeachment,” she told journalists. Trump is “disappointed” that the Democrats are holding off for now, Pelosi said, even as they intensify congressional investigations into the president´s links to Russia and his alleged obstruction of justice — probes that Trump is trying to block. “It may take us to a place that is unavoidable in terms of impeachment or not, but we´re not at that place,” she said. Under pressure from the congressional probes, Trump on Thursday ordered the US intelligence community to “fully cooperate” with an investigation into what he has termed “spying” on his 2016 election campaign.

According to Trump, court-approved surveillance of his campaign´s links to Russians amounted to “spying.” He has even called the probe treason and indicated he would like to see criminal charges brought against his investigators. Pelosi, who repeated her charge that Trump was engaged in a “cover-up,” goaded the president, declaring that she was praying for him and that she wished “his family or his staff or his administration would have an intervention for the good of the country.”