Donald Trump Tells Students That The Constitution Gives Him The ‘Right To Do Whatever I Want’
President Donald Trump appeared before thousands of conservative teens and young adults at a summit on Tuesday where he falsely said that the Constitution gives him unlimited authority.
Trump delivered that message during an 80-minute speech where he addressed the Turning Point USA Teen Student Action Summit in Washington, according to The Washington Post.
The summit brings conservative high school students together to network and to listen to conservative leaders and activists.
“Then I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president,” said Trump.
The president made the comment while referring to former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling during the election.
This is not the first time Trump has made this claim, according to The Hill. In June Trump said in an ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos that “Article II would have allowed me to fire [Mueller].”
In the Constitution, Article II gives the president “executive power,” which lawmakers say is a broad term, but not overarching.
“If the president doesn’t understand that, he doesn’t understand America,” said Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney in an interview Tuesday with CNN.
Also mentioned in Article II is the responsibilities given to Congress. Overseeing the president is one. Ironically, Article II details how a president can be impeached, which comes at a time when Democrats are under pressure to ramp up a case against the president for possible impeachment.
"He cannot commit crimes. He's not above the law. That's our whole constitutional system. If the President doesn't understand that, he doesn't understand America." – Rep. Sean Maloney on President Trump saying he can do whatever he wants because of Article 2 in the Constitution pic.twitter.com/LwKJafIYoh
— CNN (@CNN) July 23, 2019
Republicans and the majority of House Democrats voted down an impeachment resolution against the president last week.
Mueller’s controversial report pointed out 11 times the president’s actions could be considered obstruction.
The former special counsel will testify before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees on Wednesday about his findings in his report.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Mueller in the days leading up to his testimony, reported The Inquisitr. Trump tweeted that the former special counsel was “highly conflicted” and was on a “witch hunt.”
Mueller made a public statement just after the release of the report, stating that he did not reach a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice and that charging the president with a crime was “not an option we could consider” according to a Justice Department opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Following the president’s claims about Article II, the term began trending on Twitter, with thousands of users criticizing and ridiculing the president for misrepresenting the Constitution.
Article 2 trends on Twitter as people react to Trump's false claims about the U.S. Constitution https://t.co/2KEjsykrDD pic.twitter.com/eApNRHmZeV
— SFGATE (@SFGate) July 23, 2019
The president announced Monday that he wouldn’t watch Mueller’s testimony, but quickly changed his mind saying that he might watch “a little,” according to CNN.
