Trump: ‘John Dean’s been a loser for many years’

President Trump on Monday blasted John Dean after the former Nixon White House counsel likened the president’s conduct during the Russia investigation to the Watergate scandal.

“John Dean’s been a loser for many years,” Trump said in impromptu remarks to reporters during a celebration for Indianapolis 500 winner Simon Pagenaud at the White House.

Dean testified earlier Monday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, saying “the Trump administration is in fast competition with what happened in the Nixon administration” and comparing the report to the Watergate “road map” that helped fell former President Richard Nixon.

{mosads}Dean’s congressional testimony in 1973 helped trigger Nixon’s resignation, and Democrats were hoping to make similar fireworks by inviting him back to Capitol Hill.

But Trump denied there are any similarities between himself and Nixon, who resigned in 1974 before Congress could impeach him.

“You can’t impeach somebody when there’s never been a thing done wrong,” Trump said. “When you look at past impeachments, whether it was President Clinton, or I guess President Nixon never got there. He left. I don’t leave. There’s a big difference. I don’t leave.”

Some Trump advisers have predicted that opening an impeachment inquiry into Trump would backfire on Democrats and inadvertently benefit the president during his 2020 reelection campaign. But Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Democrats whenever the topic is discussed.