Donald Trump storms out of meeting with Democrats, refuses to work with them unless they halt ‘phoney investigations’
- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had accused US president of ‘cover-up’ just before meeting at White House
- Rank-and-file Democrats are increasingly demanding impeachment proceedings as Trump stonewalls investigation efforts
US President Donald Trump escalated his confrontation with House Democrats over their efforts to investigate him, declaring that he would refuse to work with them on bipartisan policies including an infrastructure plan unless they halt their inquiries.
“Get these phoney investigations over with,” Trump said he told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday at the White House. Democrats said he stormed out of a scheduled meeting without letting them talk.
Minutes later, reporters were abruptly summoned to the White House Rose Garden, where a podium had been prepared for Trump to speak. He led off a lengthy, unscripted statement by complaining that Pelosi had accused him of conducting a “cover-up”.
“Instead of walking in happily into a meeting, I walk in to people who just said I was doing a cover-up,” Trump said. “I don’t do cover-ups.”
Congressional Democratic leaders were invited to the White House on Wednesday to discuss an infrastructure plan that they and Trump have agreed may total US$2 trillion. But the meeting ended abruptly in “high drama”, Senator Dick Durbin said, after Trump walked in and announced that he would not meet them because of the investigations.