The private notes of Donald Trump on how to respond to the escalating threat of impeachment proceedings have been announced in a photo taken moments before he addressed reporters outside the White House. The image was taken by Washington Post photographer Jabin Botsford. It shows a list of talking points scrawled in permanent marker on a sheet of A4 paper. The president seemingly used the notes as an aid during a hastily arranged press conference in the Rose Garden on Wednesday afternoon. Trump railed against the Mueller report and the possibility of impeachment.
Trump said, “They want to impeach me over acts that they did”. He added, “Dems have no accomplishments, I’m going to keep working for the American people”. Trump’s notes quote House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s claim earlier in the day during a discussion with colleagues that the president had engaged in a cover-up. The press conference was amounted to 10-minute diatribe by Trump. It came moments after the president stormed out of a bipartisan White House infrastructure meeting with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Trump said he informed the Democratic leadership that he will no longer work with the party until all investigations against him had been closed.
Trump reportedly said in the 5-minute meeting he would like to work on infrastructure but would not negotiate with them until the probes had reached their conclusions. On Wednesday, Pelosi and Schumer arranged a competing press conference of their own with the latter telling reporters, “What happened in the White House would make your jaw drop”. The Washington Post also reported that Trump and his aides hatched a plan to deliberately sabotage it ahead of the infrastructure meeting. The White House sources informed the newspaper and press secretary Sarah Sanders alerted staff just minutes before the 11 am start time to prepare the Rose Garden for a news conference at 11.20 am.