Defiant Trump vows to fight House Democrats’ subpoenas

A combative President Trump on Wednesday vowed to fight subpoenas from House Democrats seeking his tax returns and sitdowns with former officials who had testified to the special counsel during the Russia probe.

“We’re fighting all the subpoenas,” Trump said as he prepared to board Marine One at the White House, the start of a trip to Atlanta, where he and the first lady will deliver remarks at the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit.

“The subpoena is ridiculous. We have been [the most] transparent president and administration in the history of our country, by far,” he said before taking aim once again at special counsel Robert Mueller and his team.

“We just went through the Mueller witch hunt where you had really 18 angry Democrats that hate President Trump. They hate him with a passion,” he said.
Trump accused Democrats of playing politics
But, the president added, he was still on the job draining “the swamp.”

“I’m breaking down the swamp. They’re getting caught. They’re getting fired. Who knows what’s going to happen from now on but I hope it’s very strong. If you look at drain the swamp I am draining the swamp,” he said, without specifying his targets, though a number of Homeland Security officials have been axed or are expected to be, including DHS chief Kirstjen Nielsen.

Mueller’s report found no evidence that Trump conspired with Russia, but was unable to conclude whether he obstructed justice or not, though Attorney General Bill Barr quickly made that determination himself.

Since Mueller’s report was released, House Democrats have sought to interview former White House Counsel Don McGahn, who spent 30 hours spilling his guts to Mueller’s team, and have also demanded Trump’s tax returns, which he has refused to release.

The president also repeated his usual talking positive talking points on the economy, trade deals, low unemployment rate and the opioid crisis, the subject of the afternoon’s event in Georgia, referring to his wife Melania.
 by trying to perpetuate the Russia probe now that Mueller has wound down his nearly two-year probe.

“Look, these aren’t like impartial people. The Democrats are trying to win 2020. They won’t win with the people I see and they’re not going to win against me,” he said, referring to his loyal base.
He said their only hope then is to try to take him down by scrutinizing what he called nonsense.
“The only way they can maybe luck out, and I don’t think that’s going to happen. The only way they can luck out is by constantly going after me on nonsense,” he said.

Investigators, he said, should instead eyeball Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and the so-called “dirty cops” at the Justice Department.

“This has been litigated, just so you understand, this has been litigated for the last two years almost since I got into office. Now, if you want to litigate, go after the DNC, Crooked Hillary, the dirty cops, all of these things. That’s what should be litigated because that was a rigged system,” he continued.
“I’m bringing the first lady — right now she’s worked very hard on the opioid crisis.

We’re down about 17 percent from last year, which is pretty amazing. We’re down 17 percent with the opioid problem,” the president said, though it was unclear where those numbers came from.