White House: Impeachment inquiry ‘destroyed any chances of legislative progress’

The White House on Tuesday declared that House Democrats “destroyed any chances of legislative progress” by launching an impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

Press secretary Stephanie Grisham issued a scathing statement deriding the opposing party as “pathetic” hours after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the House would pursue a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump.

“In a far departure from all of the work and results of this President, House Democrats have destroyed any chances of legislative progress for the people of this country by continuing to focus all their energy on partisan political attacks,” Grisham said. “Their attacks on the President and his agenda are not only partisan and pathetic, they are in dereliction of their Constitutional duty.”{mosads}

“The Trump Administration will continue to be vigorous in laying out the facts and standing up for the many forgotten men and women who elected him,” Grisham added.

Trump had previously signaled that he would be unwilling to work with Democrats on issues such as infrastructure as long as he was under investigation.

But Grisham’s statement appeared to quash any remaining hope of coming to an agreement on major issues with congressional Democrats.

The White House and Democrats have been recently negotiating on potential gun control legislation and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which has been a key priority for the White House.

The Trump administration statement came hours after Pelosi formalized the House’s impeachment inquiry into Trump amid controversy over his interactions with the leader of Ukraine.

“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed the dishonorable fact of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of our national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” Pelosi said in announcing the inquiry.

Democrats raised alarm bells after Trump acknowledged he discussed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Biden’s son during a July 25 call with the Ukrainian president. He later acknowledged that he held up aid for Ukraine but has insisted there was no quid pro quo directly linking the funding to an investigation of the Bidens.

Trump has directed the Justice Department to release a transcript of the call on Wednesday, though Democrats have said they must see the full whistleblower complaint that first set off the furor around the president’s interactions with Ukraine.