President Trump said he watched some of the televised public impeachment hearings with Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Jennifer Williams, praising Republicans, who, he said, are “killing it.”
“I just got to watch and the Republicans are absolutely killing it. They are doing so well,” Trump said of the hearing, calling the impeachment inquiry “a big scam.”
Democrats, he said, are “using this impeachment hoax for their own political gain,” which, he claimed, is backfiring, because “I’m the highest I’ve ever been in the polls.”
Asked if he believed Vindman is a credible witness, Trump said he didn’t know him and referenced an exchange between the Lieutenant Colonel and Ranking Member Devin Nunes.
“I don’t know him, I don’t know, I don’t know – as he says, Lieutenant Colonel. I understand somebody had the misfortune of calling him mister and he corrected him. I never saw the man, I understand now he wears his uniform when he goes in, no, I don’t know Vindman at all,” Trump said.
Trump was restrained in passing judgment on Vindman.
“What I do know is even he said that the transcript was correct. And if anybody reads the transcripts – I had two calls with the President of Ukraine, who by the way said there was no pressure whatsoever… But Vindman, I watched him for a little while this morning, and I think he – I’m going to let people make their own determination. But I don’t know Vindman, I never heard of him,” he said.
Trump said he didn’t know most of the witnesses, saying he had seen one or two “a couple of times” and naming Bill Taylor and George Kent, whom, he said, has a “nice bowtie, wonderful bowtie, maybe I’ll get one for myself someday.”
He went on to characterize the impeachment inquiry as an “embarrassment to our nation” and criticize House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom he called “grossly incompetent.”