President Trump on Thursday took aim at special counsel Robert Mueller and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in an interview at the American cemetery in Normandy, France, where he was marking the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
Speaking to Fox News’s Laura Ingraham just before a ceremony commemorating the storied invasion, Trump asserted that Mueller made “a fool out of himself” in his public comments last week on the Russia investigation and called Pelosi a “disaster” over her handling of a possible impeachment inquiry.
“Let me tell you, he made such a fool out of himself,” Trump said of Mueller, a former longtime FBI director and Marine Corps veteran who earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart in the Vietnam War. Trump, who did not serve in the war, called the conflict “terrible” the previous day.{mosads}
The president criticized Mueller on Thursday for saying that he could not consider charging Trump with a crime because of long-standing Justice Department (DOJ) policy stating that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
“Because what people don’t report is the letter he had to do to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong,” Trump said.
The president was referring to a joint statement later issued by the Justice Department and the special counsel’s office saying that Mueller’s account did not conflict with Attorney General William Barr’s previous comments, in which Barr said the decision not to charge Trump with obstruction did not hinge solely on the DOJ policy.
The statement reiterated that Mueller’s office “concluded it would not reach a determination — one way or the other — about whether the president committed a crime.”
Mueller’s rare comments appeared to contradict Barr’s account and raised pressure on House Democrats to begin impeachment proceedings. During the Fox interview, Trump accused Pelosi — who has thus far resisted calls for impeachment — of not understanding the joint statement.
“Nancy Pelosi, I call her ‘Nervous Nancy,’ Nancy Pelosi doesn’t talk about it,” Trump said, referring to the statement. “Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? She’s a disaster. Let her do what she wants, you know what? I think they’re in big trouble.”
Pelosi, who was in Normandy for the D-Day ceremony, declined to respond to Trump’s comments.
“I don’t talk about the president while I’m out of the country. That’s my principle,” she told reporters.