Trump reinforced one article of impeachment charge with his ugly attack on Dingell’s widow

President Donald Trump proved one element of his impeachment by attacking Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) after the vote by suggesting her late husband had gone to hell.

The president slurred the longtime lawmaker John Dingell, who died earlier this year at 92, because his wife, who succeeded him in the seat he'd held for 59 years, had voted in favor of impeachment.

"Debbie Dingell, that's a real beauty," Trump told rally goers in Battle Creek, Michigan.

He complained that she'd voted to impeach despite his ordering flags lowered to half mast after the Democratic lawmaker's death and offering the Capitol Rotunda for memorial services.

"I gave her A-plus treatment, not the B treatment or the C treatment," Trump said.

Dingell did not lie in state before his funeral in Washington and burial at Arlington National Cemetery, and the Rotunda belongs to Congress, not the president.

"She called me up and said it was the nicest thing and John would have been so pleased," Trump said.

"I gave him everything, I don't want anything, I don't need anything for anything," Trump said. "She calls me up: 'It's the nicest thing that's ever happened. Thank you so much. John would be so thrilled. He's looking down. He'd be so thrilled. Thank you so much, sir.' I said, 'That's OK, don't worry about it.'"

"Maybe he's looking up, I don't know," Trump added, to laughs and groans. "I don't know. Maybe, but let's assume he's looking down."

Trump's suggestion that Dingell should have voted against impeachment because he'd offered official acts as president lines up with evidence provided by multiple witnesses in impeachment testimony.

Multiple current and former administration officials told impeachment investigators that Trump expected Ukraine's president to announce an investigation of rival Joe Biden in exchange for the release of congressionally approved military aid.

Trump's remarks about the late Dingell and his widow offer another example of his quid pro quo mindset, which formed the basis of the first article of impeachment accusing him of abuse of office.