Trump gripes about impeachment, media at Louisiana rally

FILE: President of the United States Donald Trump speaking at the 2017 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)

LAKE CHARLES, La. — President Donald Trump on Friday pressed his argument that the House impeachment inquiry is nothing more than an attempt to overturn his election.

Trump found a sympathetic audience in Louisiana, where an arena packed with his supporters roared at his profane denunciations of the proceedings hundreds of miles away in the nation’s capital.

“They know they can’t win on Election Day so they’re pursuing an illegal, invalid and unconstitutional, bulls— impeachment,” Trump thundered at his second political rally in as many days.

Trump also pressed his unproven claims against Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, who sat on the board of a Ukrainian gas company when Biden was vice-president.

Trump complained about a double standard in news media coverage.

He said if any of his children were similarly accused, the media wouldn’t call the allegations unsubstantiated — “They would be saying, ‘Where’s the nearest cell?

”’

There has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either Joe Biden or Hunter Biden.

House Democrats have opened an impeachment inquiry over Trump’s dealings with Ukraine, in which he asked that country’s president during a telephone call in July to investigate Biden. An intelligence community whistleblower complained that Trump was abusing his office for personal political gain.

Trump insists he didn’t do anything wrong and has called the conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy “perfect.”

Zelenskiy has said he was not pressured by Trump.