Trump says ‘I’m the team’ on impeachment inquiry

President Trump had a message Friday for people wondering who’ll defend him from impeachment: you’re looking at him.

“Everybody’s talking about teams,” the president said. “Here’s the thing: I don’t have teams. I’m the team.”

Prominent Republicans in Congress such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina have questioned whether the White House needs a more effective game plan for fighting back against House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. But the president said he is in charge of his own defense.

“I did nothing wrong,” he said. “I know that people are still in a basement [at the Capitol], in a secure room in the basement, trying to make us look as bad as possible, but that’s not working too well.”

House Democrats are expected to hear testimony in private Saturday from more witnesses in their push to prove that Mr. Trump used military aid as leverage to pressure the president of Ukraine to announce publicly a corruption investigation against Democratic front-runner Joseph R. Biden and his son, Hunter.

Senate Republicans introduced a resolution Thursday condemning the House probe for its secrecy and lack of fairness.

“A lot of things are happening very good, and I appreciate Republicans are just outraged and the American public is outraged that the do-nothing Democrats are doing nothing,” Mr. Trump said, adding that voters want action on trade, prescription drug pricing and gun safety.

Pointing to another positive day on Wall Street, the president said the U.S. economy would crash if Democrats succeed in removing him from office.

“If anything ever happened with this phony witch hunt that the Democrats are doing, the do-nothing Democrats, I really believe that you’d have a recession-depression the likes of which this country hasn’t seen,” Mr. Trump said.