Subject: Out-of-town pool report No. 5: More from MAL event
Pool was escorted out of MAL at 9:37 a.m. POTUS spoke to five units deployed from around the world representing the branches of the armed forces. Pooler has asked for the names of the troops who addressed the president.
In talking about the different branches of the military, POTUS mentioned the Space Force. “We don’t have that represented yet, but that will be very soon. … That’s going to be very exciting.”
“I hope every member of our military will feel the overwhelming gratitude of our nation.”
One soldier asked the president what he bought the first lady for Christmas. “That’s a tough question,” he said. “I got her a beautiful card. … A lot of love. We love our family, and we love each other. We’ve had a great relationship, hopefully like you do with your spouses.”
“I’m still working on a Christmas present. There’s a little time left. Not much, but a little time left.”
Another soldier asks about Home Alone 2: “Well, I’m in Home Alone 2.” Says a lot of people tell him they saw him in the movie. “I was a little bit younger, to put it mildly. … It turned out to be a very big hit, obviously. It’s a big Christmas hit, one of the biggest. It’s an honor to be involved in something like that.”
Afterward, POTUS was asked by the pool about impeachment: “We didn’t lose one Republican vote in the House. We had three Democrats come over to our side.”
“We’re in a very good position. Ultimately that decision is going to be made by Mitch McConnell. He has the right to do whatever he wants. He’s the head of the Senate.”
Says treated unfairly by the House. “Now they come to the Senate, they want everything. … Look at what they did. We weren’t entitled to witnesses. We weren’t entitled to lawyers. They would leak everything …. They would leak selectively. They treated us worse than anybody has been treated from a legal standpoint in the history of the United States.”
Subject: Out-of-town pool report #6: More impeachment quotes
More impeachment quotes:
“We have the majority and now they want McConnell to do wonderful things for them.” McConnell is “going to do what he wants to do. He’s very smart guy, a very good guy, a very fair guy. But they treated us very unfairly. And now they want fairness in the Senate.”
Pelosi “is doing a tremendous disservice to the country. And she’s not doing a great job.”