Trump relishes impeachment acquittal as campaign revs up

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump triumphantly held up copies of two newspapers with banner “ACQUITTED!” headlines as he took the stage at the National Prayer Breakfast a day after avoiding becoming the first president ever removed from office by the Senate.

Trump appeared in good spirits Thursday at the annual Washington event, which was also attended by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the California Democrat who led the impeachment charge against the Republican president.

With the gavel banging down to end the impeachment drama, Trump is barrelling ahead in his reelection fight with a united Republican Party behind him.

And he’s emboldened by reassuring poll numbers and chaos in the Democratic race to replace him.

Republican senators voted largely in lockstep to acquit Trump, relying on a multitude of rationales for keeping him in office: He’s guilty, but his conduct wasn’t impeachable; his July telephone conversation with Ukraine’s president was a “perfect call”; there’s an election in 10 months and it’s up to voters to determine his fate.

For Trump, there was one overriding message to draw from his acquittal: Even at a time of maximum political peril, it’s his Republican Party.

Trump avoided talk of impeachment in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

By the next day, he was already moving to use impeachment as a 2020 rallying cry.

Trump tweeted after the Senate vote that he would mark his acquittal with a statement at noon Thursday to “discuss our Country’s VICTORY on the Impeachment Hoax!” The president’s supporters were being invited to join him in the East Room.

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