Impeachment acquittal: Donald Trump celebrates, Nancy Pelosi defends ripping up State of the Union speech

Nancy Pelosi defends her speech-ripping after the State of the Union and takes fresh aim at Donald Trump’s fitness for office.

Nancy Pelosi, right, on Friday morning revealed why she ripped up Donald Trump's speech after his State of the Union address, left.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defended her speech-ripping performance after President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address and took fresh aim at his fitness for office as he celebrated his impeachment acquittal.

Despite his acquittal, Ms Pelosi hit back at the president saying he would never get rid of the “scar’’ of impeachment. “He’s impeached forever, no matter what he says or whatever headlines he wants to carry around,” she said.

“You are impeached forever you will never get rid of that scar and history will always record that you were impeached for undermining the security of our country, jeopardising the integrity of our elections and violating the Constitution of the United States.”

Ms Pelosi, whose personal feud with Mr Trump saw him refuse to shake her hand and her rip up a copy of his speech at this week’s State of the Union Address, renewed her attack on his address.

“That was not a State of the Union. That was his state of mind,” Ms Pelosi said. “The president using the Congress of the United States as the backdrop for a reality show, presenting a state of mind that had no contact with reality whatsoever.

“He has shredded the truth in his speech, he has shredded the Constitution with his conduct,” she said. “I shredded his state of his mind address.”

As Mr Trump read his address to the nation, Ms Pelosi said, she quickly read ahead through her copy of the speech. “I saw the compilation of falsehoods.” About one-third of the way through, she said she started to think, “There has to be something that clearly indicates to the American people that this is not the truth.” And she decided to shred it. “He has shredded the truth in his speech, shredded the Constitution in his conduct. I shredded the address,” she said.

“I’ve extended every possible courtesy. I’ve shown every level of respect,” Pelosi said, describing her public conduct, which included “extending the hand of friendship” to him as Trump arrived. “He looked a little sedated,” she said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tears her copy of President Donald Trump's speech.

Nancy Pelosi said Donald Trump “shredded the truth in his speech’’.

On Friday morning. Mr Trump held a “celebration” of his acquittal on impeachment charges, thanking his lawyers and Republicans for defeating “crooked politics,” “corrupt politicians” and “bad people” on behalf of America.

In a long and rambling speech to his supporters in the White House, an upbeat president described as “warriors” those who helped secure his acquittal.

“It’s a celebration because we have something that just worked out,” Mr Trump said. “We went through hell unfairly, we did nothing wrong, nothing wrong, but this is what the end result is, “ he said as he held up the Washington Post with the banner headline TRUMP ACQUITTED, prompting loud cheers. “It's the only good headline I’ve ever had in the Washington Post,’ he said.

“Now we have a gorgeous word, I never thought a word would sound so good, it’s called ‘total acquittal.’”

Mr Trump criticised the Democrats for impeaching him in the House, saying the whole saga had been “very unfair to my family, it’s been very unfair to my country.”

He attacked Democrat House impeachment manager Adam Schiff as a “vicious horrible person,” and a “failed screenwriter,” and Ms Pelosi as a “horrible person.”

“These people have gone stone-cold crazy but I’ve beaten them all my life and I’ll beat them again if I had to,” he said.

“You could be George Washington, you could have just won the war and they’d (impeach).”

Mr Trump said the impeachment was only the latest episode of a campaign by Democrats to topple him ever since he ran for president. He cited the FBI’s Russia probe and the Mueller Report, saying he was a victim of “tremendous corruption … dirty cops and fake dossiers.”

In his White House speech on Friday Mr Trump boasted of how his poll numbers were the highest of his presidency after the impeachment. He also renewed his attack on Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden for what he called ‘corrupt’ behaviour by taking a well paid job on the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

Mr Trump was speaking the day after the Senate acquitted him of charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress in relation to his dealings with Ukraine.

The votes for the acquittal were almost entirely along party lines with only one Republican Senator, Mitt Romney, voting to convict the president for abuse of power.

At the National Prayer Breakfast this morning, Trump took a veiled shot at Senator Romney for his vote.

“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong.” Mr Trump said after Senator Romney, a devout Mormon, cited his religion as a factor in his decision to vote to convict the president.

The president also used the breakfast to criticise the Democrats and Ms Pelosi over impeachment

“As everybody knows, my family, our great country and your president have been put through a terrible ordeal by some very dishonest and corrupt people,” Mr Trump said.

“They have done everything possible to destroy us and by so doing very badly hurt our nation,” said Trump.

Donald Trump speaks about his Senate impeachment. Picture; AFP.

The Democrat-controlled House initiated the impeachment process in September, eventually impeaching the president along party lines in December for using US military aid to Ukraine to pressure that government into investigating his political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The House then charged Mr Trump with obstruction of Congress for blocking witnesses and documents during the House impeachment inquiry.

Mr Trump has denied all along that he did anything wrong and has accused the Democrats of mounting a sham political witch hunt to overturn his election victory in 2016.

Democrats allege that Mr Trump’s actions amount to the “high crimes and misdemeanours” specified in the Constitution as a reason to impeach a president and remove him from office.

Democrats also alleged that the Senate trial was not a fair trial because Senators voted to block the introduction of new witnesses and new evidence.

The Senate voted 52 – 48 to acquit Mr Trump on abuse of power and 53 – 47 to acquit him for obstruction of Congress, far short of the two-thirds majority the Democrats needed to remove Mr Trump from office.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia