Donald Trump on Saturday brandished a red ‘no’ voting card from the impeachment vote as he railed against ‘crazy’ Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claiming she hasn’t sent the articles against him to the Senate because she has ‘no case.’
The president, speaking to high school and college students at a conservative gathering, started his remarks focused on Wednesday’s vote in the House of Representatives.
And Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw came up on stage and presented Trump with his voting card from that day – red to signal he was a no on impeachment. Green voting cards were a yes.
‘It’s a no vote on impeachment day,’ Trump said, waving the card in the air before putting it in his suit pocket.
President Trump told students ‘crazy’ Nancy Pelosi hasn’t sent articles of impeachment to Senate because she has ‘no case’
Many Republican lawmakers filled out paper ballots in the impeachment vote with the members of Congress then keeping them as souvenirs.
‘What kind of incredible support did we have,’ Trump said of the vote.
‘We had three Democrats coming to our side so we have to call it a bipartisan vote,’ he noted. ‘Hey, they had no Republicans on their side.’
‘How do you impeach when there is no crime,’ he pondered before turning to attack Pelosi.
‘Crazy Nancy. She’s crazy,’ he said to great applause.
He then argued she hasn’t sent his formal articles of impeachment to the Senate because ‘she has no case.’
The Senate – which is expected to acquit the president given its Republican majority – cannot formally try Trump until the articles are transmitted.
‘You know she has no case. So let’s not submit it. That’s good. Right? That’s good but so unfair. She has no case,’ he said.
‘They are violating the constitution,’ he added. ‘In the meantime our polls have gone through the roof.’
The weekend retreat of Turning Point USA is an annual gathering for conservative students.
Founder Charlie Kirk is a friend of the president’s.
Other speakers include Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, Sean Hannity, Sarah Sanders, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Sens. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, and Rep. Matt Gaetz.
When Trump spoke to the group last – at their July conference in Washington D.C. – he spoke a video in front of a backdrop that included a doctored presidential seal – complete with a Russian emblem and a set of golf clubs.
However, there was no presidential seal behind him on Saturday. He spoke at the presidential lectern with the Turning Point USA logo behind him.
Instead of ‘E pluribus unum,’ the U.S. motto that means ‘out of many, one’ in Latin, the satirical version of the presidential seal – which went global in the after math of the conference – sported a new phrase: ’45 es un titere.’ That’s Spanish for ’45 is a puppet.’
President Donald Trump spoke to Turning Point USA’s Teen Student Action Summit in July with a doctored presidential seal behind him
This graphic shows the modifications the unknown creator of the phony seal (right) made to the original (left)
In the Seal of the President of the United States, an eagle faces to the left and holds 13 arrows in the talons of its opposite claw. The altered version replaced the arrows with a set of golf clubs.
Dollar bills were substituted for the olive branch traditionally in the other foot’s grasp. Hammer-and-sickle icons made appearances on a makeshift red, white and blue shield.
The bird, too, was altered: In place of the bald eagle on the U.S. version, unchanged since 1960, a two-headed eagle from the Russian coat of arms appeared.
Turning Point USA said at the time that an aide had grabbed the wrong seal in a quick google search and fired that person.
Trump began his Christmas vacation on Saturday by hitting the links at his golf course in Florida.
Trump’s motorcade departed Mar-a-Lago just after 10am, and headed to Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.
On the way to the golf course, the motorcade passed a small number of supporters with flags and a Trump 2020 sign.
There was also a billboard on the way to the golf course that said ‘President Trump, we’ll give $1 million to our veterans if you go vegan for January.’
Trump flashes a double thumbs-up to supporters as he returns to Mar-a-Lago from the golf course on Saturday
The president could be seen wearing a white polo shirt and red hat with his campaign slogan, Keep America Great
President Trump’s motorcade heads from Mar-a-Lago to Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach
Trump remained at the private golf course until around 1.45pm. The White House did not immediately offer details on who he may have played golf with.
On the way back to Mar-a-Lago, Trump was spotted by DailyMail.com as he flashed a double thumbs up to a small group of supporters by the roadside.
After a week of high impeachment drama and furious tweeting from Trump, the president fell silent on Twitter while enjoying the mild 75 degree weather at the golf course.
In contrast to Friday, when he sent more than 45 tweets, Trump did not tweet on Saturday until after 2.30pm, when he boasted of a set of spending bills he signed on the way out of DC on Friday night.