Shortly after the Senate’s impeachment trial formally began Thursday, President Donald Trump opted to make a statement on the proceedings — in all caps no less — via his Twitter account about the basis for his impeachment.
Last month, the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against Trump: one for abuse of power in relation to his working relationship with the Ukrainian government and another for obstruction of Congress for his alleged efforts to impede the impeachment inquiry.
»MORE: Senators sworn in, Impeachment trial resumes 1 p.m. Jan. 21
Thursday, the Republican-led U.S. Senate received those impeachment articles and Chief Justice John Roberts swore in the senators who will determine the president’s fate.
The pending trial seemingly moved the president to respond about 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Typing in all caps, Trump proclaimed, “I JUST GOT IMPEACHED FOR MAKING A PERFECT CALL.”
The president was presumably referring to his July 25, 2019, conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which was a topic considered in the impeachment. The impeachment articles accused Trump of pressuring Ukraine to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, using military aid to the country as leverage.
The declarative tweet was up to more than 27,000 retweets and 139,000 likes as of Thursday evening. Many Twitter users took the tweet lightly, coming up with a number of memes and jokes in response to the president’s defensive social media post.
Trump on Thursday also responded to a claim by Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, that the president urged him to pressure Ukraine into investigating Biden. Parnas said Trump “knew exactly what was going on.” Parnas made the claims on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Wednesday night.
The president denied knowing Parnas.
The impeachment proceedings are scheduled to resume Tuesday.
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