Trump promises 2020 election ‘backlash’ against impeachment

An angry, energised United States President Donald Trump whipped his supporters into a frenzy on Thursday at a rally in Minneapolis as he sought to use the Democrats two-week-old impeachment inquiry as a campaign weapon, and predicted a 2020 election “backlash” against any attempt to unseat him.

Democrats in the House of Representatives are investigating Trump for possible impeachment over his alleged bid to pressure Ukraine into digging up dirt on election rival Joe Biden, who is currently one of the frontrunners for the Democratic nomination.

In a speech lasting one hour and 40 minutes, Trump bathed in supporters’ adulation, homing in on his favourite talking points with a mix of jokes, insults and populist exaggeration.

The president spent little time defending his attempt to pressure the Ukrainian president to investigate the Bidens. Instead, he cast the impeachment fight in more basic terms — a battle between him and what he calls the “swamp” in Washington.

What the Republican described as an “insane impeachment witch hunt” was doomed to failure, he said, and would “produce a backlash at the ballot box the likes of which they have never ever seen before.”

Via Al Jazeera