President Donald Trump was up and at it early this morning on Twitter after an eight-hour break overnight. He took to the social media platform to complain about what he calls another “witch hunt” against him. Yesterday, The Inquisitr reported that Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, announced she planned to begin a formal impeachment inquiry into the president.
In his tweet , Trump declared that no other president of the United States has ever been treated as badly as he has been. However, his critics quickly turned to history to refute his claim.
“I mean, JFK and Lincoln were assassinated, but you do you,” replied award-winning artist, Tony Posnanski.
“Four presidents were assassinated while in office. That’s bad. And today there are four ex-presidents who have to endure living through your presidency. That’s also bad. So, no, your [sic] not being treated worst. That said, you should be…as you are the worst president in history,” declared author David Rothkopf.
Presidents John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, and William McKinley were assassinated while in office. In addition, multiple presidents have been shot, including President Ronald Reagan, who was wounded when John Hinckley Jr. took a shot at the president in Washington, DC. Officials have also foiled as many as 30 assassination attempts against sitting presidents.
Meanwhile, two U.S. presidents have been impeached — Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, but neither was removed from office as a result of the inquiries from the U.S. House of Representatives. In 1974, President Richard Nixon resigned during an impeachment inquiry, making him the only U.S. president to do so.
Other critics, like radio personality Sheldon Beatty, simply compared Trump’s treatment to President Obama’s. He asked pointed questions about Trump’s birth certificate, alluding to the “birther” conspiracy that Trump helped perpetuate against Obama. He wondered how many times the current president had to show his birth certificate.
However, some people agreed with Trump about the investigations he has had to endure during his time in office, which include a roughly two-year inquiry by Robert Mueller about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. While Mueller’s report did not exonerate Trump, it did not find that he colluded with Russia during the election.
“It’s a national disgrace! You are saving this country, Mr. President!” agreed author Nick Adams.
Speaker Pelosi’s announcement came amidst speculation about a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A whistleblower complaint that Congress failed to receive is possibly related to the phone call in question. Yesterday, after he addressed the United Nations General Assembly, Trump tweeted that the entire transcript of the call will be released today.
According to a Vox report, the whole Senate voted unanimously in a non-binding resolution to provide the whistleblower report to both the House and Senate Intelligence committees. With all the discussion about what the report may contain, NPR investigated the long history of whistleblowers reporting wrongdoing in the United States. The U.S. passed the world’s first whistleblower protection law in 1787 to allow protection for those who spoke up and disclosed questionable actions in government agencies.