White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Tuesday suggested that House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry of President Trump could be more “dangerous” for the administration than foreign adversaries such as Russia and China.
“This is a very dangerous game that I think the Democrats could play,” Navarro, a White House adviser for trade and manufacturing, said on Fox Business. “Every day, the president has to deal with China, he’s got to deal with Russia, he’s got to deal with Iran, North Korea and now the House of Representatives, and I don’t know which one’s more dangerous over the next couple of months.”
{mosads}Trump is facing intensifying scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers in light of revelations that he pressured the leader of Ukraine to investigate 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden over unsubstantiated allegations of corruption.
An intelligence community whistleblower complaint, which was released publicly last week, accuses Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani of enlisting Ukraine’s help in the president’s 2020 reelection efforts.
A White House memorandum of a July 25 phone call also shows that Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work with Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr to investigate the Biden family.
The revelations prompted Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to shift her long-held position and announce a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.
While speaking on Fox Business, Navarro claimed that the inquiry was “nothing less than an attempted coup d’état” that stemmed from Democrats’ anger over the results of the 2016 election.
“We got the second impeachment circus in three years,” he said. “This is nothing less than an attempted coup d’état, an end run around the ballot box.”
“Should the impeachment process be used to depose a duly elected president when they can’t beat him at the ballot box?” Navarro asked.
The comments echoed remarks Trump and other GOP lawmakers have made in the days since Pelosi announced the House’s formal inquiry. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the whistleblower misrepresented him, and he has accused them and other White House officials who provided them with information of being spies.
“Why aren’t we entitled to interview & learn everything about the Whistleblower, and also the person who gave all of the false information to him,” Trump tweeted on Tuesday. “This is simply about a phone conversation that could not have been nicer, warmer, or better. No pressure at all (as confirmed by Ukrainian Pres.). It is just another Democrat Hoax!”