Too busy to watch impeachment hearing, says US President Donald Trump

United States President Donald Trump didn’t watch any of the impeachment hearing which was televised on November 13, said he was “too busy to watch it”. Trump greeted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House for a significant meeting in terms of future ties of the two countries. Both leaders were to hold several hours of meetings followed by a joint news conference while impeachment hearing at the capitol hill was nationally televised.  

“I’m too busy to watch it. It’s a witch hunt. It’s a hoax. I’m too busy to watch it. So, I’m sure I’ll get a report,” said Trump.

Read: US: Official Who Overheard Trump-Gordon Sondland Call To Testify

'Good friends'

Even after recent verbal jabs, Trump maintained that he has a good relationship with Erdogan and they have been friends for a long time. “We understand where we’re coming from. I understand the problems that they’ve had, including many people from Turkey being killed in the area that we’re talking about,” said Trump. US President also claimed that the Kurds “seem to be very satisfied”.

Read: 'Donald Trump's Call To US Ambassador In Ukraine A Security Breach': Ex Officials

Trade relationship

Trump said that the United States will expand trade relationships with Turkey significantly. “We think we could be doing $100 billion with Turkey. And right now we’re doing about $20 billion. But we think that number should be easily $100 billion, which would be great for Turkey and good for us,” he said. Erdogan refrained from making any statement saying he doesn’t feel the need to come up with longer statements as a larger-scale press meeting was scheduled for later.

Read: Donald Trump To Release Transcript Of April Call With Ukraine President

Statement on defence purchase

Recently, Turkey’s decision to purchase S-400 air defence system from Russia did not go down well with Trump administration and Robert O’Brien, the National Security Adviser to President Trump, went on to say that Turkey can face US sanctions in case it doesn’t get rid of the Russian system. During the press briefing, Trump did not give any detail on the issue and said that they will be talking about S-400 as well as the F-35 fighter jet.

Read: Donald Trump Says, Impeachment Proceedings Are A 'Witch Hunt And A Hoax'