President Donald Trump on Wednesday excoriated Democrats for being “con artists” who contradict themselves and do not really mean what they say, adding that the media plays along with Democratic talking points.
Taking questions from reporters in New York, Trump dismissed the idea of his cabinet discussing using the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. He then turned to his political opponents, saying that Democrats want to find some way to beat him outside the ballot box.
“[They’ll] use anything they can! They’re not in love with me. They’re not going to beat me in the election. They know that,” Trump said.
The president then taunted the potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, saying none of them can beat him.
“The people that I’m looking at are total lightweights. I dream of running against those people. Maybe they’ll come up with somebody that’s not,” he said. “They’re not going to beat me.”
Trump explained that his positions in favor of border security, low taxes, and law enforcement run counter to the Democratic agenda, adding that is why they want him out. He also accused Democrats of insincerity in their attacks.
“I must say, I know many of the Democrats,” Trump said. “They’ll say things and then wink at me. And, again, it’s the same old story. They’ll say things, they don’t mean it. It’s politics.”
“The reason they don’t want me is because they want to run the show,” he added. “It’s power, it’s whatever you want to call it, but what they have done here is a disgrace.”
Trump then argued that Democrats and liberals in the media contradict themselves when they vacillate between accusing him of being too powerful and him being incompetent.
It’s sort of interesting. In one case, they say, “He’s a fascist, he’s taking over the government, he’s the most powerful president ever. He’s a horrible human being. He wants to take over the entire government and he’s going to do it. We can’t stop him.” That didn’t work. The next week, “He’s incompetent.” I said, wait a minute, in one case I’m taking over the world, and in the other case, “he’s incompetent.” They tried that for a week. That didn’t work.
Trump also criticized the media for seeing what he described as the Democrats’ dishonesty but not calling them out on it.
“These are very dishonest people. These are con artists. And the press knows it but the press doesn’t write it,” Trump said.