Donald Trump Announces White House Speech to React to Impeachment Acquittal

President Donald Trump will address the nation in a Thursday speech following his acquittal on two [...]

By Allison Schonter

President Donald Trump will address the nation in a Thursday speech following his acquittal on two articles of impeachment. The president, who on Wednesday was acquitted in a vote of 52-48 on Article 1, abuse of power, and in a 53-47 on Article II, obstruction of Congress, will take the pulpit on noon ET Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Senate vote, he announced in a tweet.

According to aides who spoke to USA Today, Trump has "talked with people for days about what he might say after acquittal," and reportedly "talked more excitedly about his impeachment speech than he did the State of the Union."

Thursday's speech, however, will not mark the first time Trump has reacted to his acquittal. Just minutes after the final votes were tallied, the president took to Twitter to celebrate, sharing a 30-second-long video featuring a TIME magazine cover with the headline "How Trumpism Will Outlast Trump." With campaign signs showing Trump running for president through 2048 and beyond, the video ended with the words, "Trump 4EVA."

The president has also reacted to the acquittal by slamming Sen. Mitt Romney, who was the only person in the Senate to cross party lines when he voted to convict Trump on Article I. Romney did not, however, vote to convict the president on Article II.

In a minute-long video shared by the president Wednesday night, Romney is branded as as "a Democrat secret asset" who "tried to infiltrate Trump's administration as secretary of state" while "posing as a Republican."

Just after midnight, Trump again addressed Romney, calling him a "failed presidential candidate" who, had he "devoted the same energy and anger to defeating a faltering Barack Obama as he sanctimoniously does to me, he could have won the election. Read the Transcripts!"

Meanwhile, the White House, in a statement, accused the impeachment trial of being "another with-hunt" that was an attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election and interfere with the 2020 election.

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