They Just Want to Investigate, Not Legislate

By Joseph diGenova
May 24, 2019
FOXNews.com

Congressional Democrats have deliberately torpedoed a rare opportunity to reach a bipartisan infrastructure deal. Now they’re trying, as usual, to blame President Trump.

After the president abruptly ended a White House meeting Wednesday to discuss details of a $2 trillion infrastructure plan with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Pelosi claimed that she was confused by his actions.

“He just took a pass, and it just makes me wonder why he did that,” Pelosi said, later adding that the meeting “was very, very, very strange."

Schumer, meanwhile, described the president’s demeanor as “agitated,” telling reporters that “what happened in the White House would make your jaw drop."

No, there was nothing strange or jaw-dropping about the fact that President Trump walked out of the infrastructure meeting.

Schumer and Pelosi know that better than anybody, because that’s exactly the outcome they wanted. In fact, the only thing that’s strange is Pelosi and Schumer, and the only thing that’s jaw- dropping is their insolent refusal to do what’s best for the American people.

After dozens of investigations, partisan probes, and political witch hunts, it’s safe to say that President Trump is more than a little frustrated by the ongoing Democratic effort to undermine his presidency – and justifiably so.

Pelosi used that as an opportunity to scuttle the infrastructure meeting by accusing President Trump of orchestrating a cover-up just two hours before the scheduled White House meeting. 

Rank-and-file Democrats never really had the appetite for an infrastructure deal because they’re convinced that a successful bipartisan agreement would give Donald Trump another political victory.

Pelosi, who was already facing down a rebellious caucus trying to pressure her into impeaching the president, needed a way out of the infrastructure deal that many Democrats feared would boost Trump’s re-election prospects. Her ridiculous and unfounded cover-up accusation was an obvious ploy to poison the well and guarantee that the meeting would be unproductive, if not canceled.

When the meeting started, the president walked into the room and told Schumer and Pelosi that he wants to do infrastructure – building things, after all, is Trump’s forte – but he also told them that their phony congressional investigations make it impossible to negotiate in good faith. He was absolutely right.

Contrary to Pelosi’s absurd claim that the president “pulled a stunt” because he was “ill-prepared” to negotiate a good deal with Democratic leaders, Trump’s decision to end the meeting was the only reasonable course of action in response to Pelosi’s disrespectful provocation.

Someone who goes on national television describing a negotiating counterpart as a criminal immediately before a pivotal meeting clearly isn’t approaching the situation in good faith.

President Trump graciously gave Democrats the benefit of the doubt when they initially expressed a willingness to work on an infrastructure bill, despite the fact that they have obstinately obstructed almost every single policy he has proposed since taking office, and even though they continue to harass him with outrageous and illegitimate congressional investigations.

Pelosi’s snarky remark accusing Trump of a “cover-up” made it abundantly clear that any hope of a bipartisan agreement to fund desperately needed infrastructure improvements had been sacrificed to the insatiable demands of her impeachment-obsessed party.

The only way for Democrats to regain credibility now, as President Trump told Schumer and Pelosi before sending them scurrying back to Capitol Hill with their tails between their legs, is to end all of their sham investigations and demonstrate that they truly want to serve the American people, and not just their own partisan interests.

The Democrats may claim they were surprised by the president’s display of righteous indignation, but it was their own obstructionist “stunt” that really sabotaged the infrastructure meeting.

Schumer and Pelosi can play the blame game all they want, but the American people know that President Trump is right.

Joseph diGenova was US Attorney for the District of Columbia and an Independent Counsel.