Ivanka Trump says president views impeachment as "just pure partisan politics"
An excerpt of Ivanka Trump's interview with "Face the Nation" will air on the "CBS Evening News" with Norah O'Donnell Thursday night and on CBS This Morning Friday. More of the interview with Trump will air Sunday, December 29th only on "Face the Nation."
Washington — White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump said her father views the House's decision to impeach him on two separate charges as "just raw partisan politics," but also left the president "energized" ahead of a Senate trial in the new year.
"He said it didn't even feel like he was being impeached," Ivanka Trump told "Face the Nation" about her father's mood post-impeachment in an interview with Margaret Brennan about paid family leave Thursday at the CBS Washington bureau.
"It is pretty unprecedented that support for impeachment has decreased over time as more information was presented to the American people. It's decreased, not increased. So with all of this time spent, with all of these witnesses who didn't have firsthand knowledge, with all of these people that have been paraded in front of the American people, support for this action has decreased. So, you know, I think he sees it for what it is, which is really just raw partisan politics."
She noted, however, that the president is "energized" by the condemnation by the Congress.
"As are 63 million-plus voters who elected him to office. This is historic, as you note. And in many ways, including the fact that it is the first purely partisan impeachment. In fact, the only thing bipartisan was the vote against proceeding forward," said Trump.
The president's eldest daughter spoke one day after the Democratic-controlled House voted nearly along party lines late Wednesday to charge her father with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making him just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.
Over the course of the impeachment saga, Mr. Trump has repeatedly and vehemently decried the probe as a "witch hunt" manufactured by House Democrats. But the impeachment process will soon move to the Republican-controlled Senate, where the president's allies are eager to dispense with the trial quickly.
Despite impeachment, the White House has hailed a series of victories with the recent passage of the National Defense Authorization Act, House Democrats' support and passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement and progress on a trade deal with China -- all while in the throws of a contentious impeachment battle.
Trump said the political sparring on Capitol Hill has left the president angry. "Angry at the waste of time. Angry at the collateral damage. Angry, but it's still energizing. And it focuses you on really and draws into relief the stark contrast in priorities."
The impeachment votes were the culmination of months of investigation by House Democrats into the president's efforts to pressure the government of Ukraine to pursue investigations that would benefit him politically, including a probe into a company that employed the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, one of the president's chief potential rivals in his 2020 reelection bid.