Former President Bill Clinton on Thursday had some advice for President Donald Trump concerning impeachment: forget about it and get on with the job of being chief executive.
“My message would be, look, you got hired to do a job,” Clinton told CNN. “You don’t get the days back you blow off. Every day is an opportunity to make something good happen.”
“And I would say, ‘I’ve got lawyers and staff people handling this impeachment inquiry, and they should just have at it,'” he continued. “Meanwhile, I’m going to work for the American people. That’s what I would do.” (RELATED: ‘Such A Sham’: Jim Jordan Says Republicans Are United Against Impeachment Inquiry Into Trump)
Clinton is one of the only two presidents in American history who have been successfully impeached in the House Representatives. In both Clinton’s case and Reconstruction-era President Andrew Johnson’s example, Republicans controlled the House. Both were ultimately reprieved by the Senate.
The impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump opened on Wednesday with testimony from two key witnesses before the House Intelligence Committee. The proceedings confirmed a deep divide between Democrats attacking the president and Republicans defending him.
While Clinton on Thursday urged trump to work with Congress on issues like gun control in the wake of the latest shooting incident, the Democratic House has avoided dealing with major issues that are part of Trump’s legislative agenda. Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not moved the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) forward to a vote in order for the treaty to be ratified by the Senate.
“I mean, I think what happened was — [Trump] did indicate a couple of times he might go along with this and then obviously the gun lobby got ahold of him and pulled him back,” Clinton said. “But at some point, you know, denial is no longer an option. And Congress is basically in denial of the consequences of doing nothing. Or at least the people who are opposed to it.”
Clinton did not mention the USMCA — even though he was the president who negotiated and signed the original North American Free Trade Agreement that it has replaced.
Clinton added, “at least give us a clean background check law, one that works in the modern wold, takes advantage of our information technology.” (RELATED: New York Post Lampoons Impeachment Hearings As A Circus)