President Donald Trump singled out Arizona Republican Reps. Andy Biggs and Debbie Lesko for their support throughout the impeachment case that ended in his acquittal in the Senate.

During hour-long remarks on Thursday in which Trump mentioned his GOP backers with his customary, unpredictable banter, the president praised Biggs as "tough" and said Lesko was "smart" and "sharp."

He also predicted that Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., is "going to do good" in an apparent reference to her upcoming election.

Biggs and Lesko are members of the House Judiciary Committee and, like all the Republican members of the House, opposed the impeachment effort throughout.

Biggs, who also is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, offered countless tweets, appearances on Fox News and opinion pieces attacking the Democratic case revolving around Trump's efforts to get Ukraine to open a corruption investigation into 2020 rival Joe Biden.

"Andy Biggs. Where’s Andy? Boy, oh boy, Andy. There’s a guy. He’s tough," Trump said as Biggs stood for the recognition.

In a tweet afterward, Biggs thanked Trump for the recognition.

"It's a honor to defend this President from the radical Left's malicious attacks — and to advocate for promises he is keeping to the American people. Grateful for President (Trump) and his tireless work for the United States of America," Biggs wrote.

Trump then veered to election prospects in Arizona, his own and McSally's.

"I hear we’re doing well in Arizona, huh. Doing good. Think so. Think I saw a poll that was very good. For me. I think we have to make sure Martha’s going to do — I think Martha’s going to do good," Trump said.

"But we have some states that are going to be not easy. But Arizona has been great. And we’re stopping illegal aliens from coming in. We’re putting up walls."

McSally faces voters again in November after being appointed to the seat once held by the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. While McSally narrowly lost her Senate campaign in 2018 against Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., Trump won the state in 2016 by a slightly wider margin, 3.5 percentage points.

Trump then turned his attention to Lesko, who won a special election to the House in April 2018 from a West Valley-based district that leans heavily Republican. In a move that surprised even Lesko, he named her as one of his special advisers to his legal defense team during the impeachment trial in the Senate.

He praised her, then suggested he favored her in the crowded GOP special primary election in February 2018. If she had Trump's support at that time, he never tweeted it or gave any public indication of it.

"We have a couple of women who became stars. I always liked the name of her, I liked the name Lesko. I liked it. That’s how I picked it. I liked the name. I saw that face. I saw that everything you had like seven opponents, right? You have no idea how much the public appreciates how smart, how sharp you are," Trump said. "They just said, 'You know, she’s really good. She’s really talented.' I said, ‘Let’s go.'

"We worked with her, she won her race. It’s no longer tough. Because what she does out there is incredible. Arizona loves her."

Trump tweeted support of Lesko's special-election candidacy on the day of the special general election when her only opponent was Democrat Hiral Tipirneni.

Lesko won by 5 percentage points in an area that hasn't sent a Democrat to Washington since 1980. Lesko defeated Tipirneni in a rematch in November 2018 by more than 10 percentage points.

Lesko also tweeted in appreciation of the president.

"Thank you, President (Trump), for the kind words," she wrote.

McSally did not attend the president's remarks at the White House. Moments after it ended, she appeared on Fox News, where she criticized the House impeachment managers for pressing the Senate to hear from new witnesses. Republicans have argued that the Democratic-controlled House was relying on the Senate to undertake its fact-finding mission. GOP lawmakers said the House should have fought to hear from additional witnesses and to see additional evidence before sending the case to the upper chamber.

McSally also questioned Hunter Biden's role on the board of one of Ukraine's largest natural gas companies. He is the son of Vice President Joe Biden, one of Trump's Democratic presidential rivals.

"Most Americans, when they know what happened with Hunter Biden, ask the question, 'Wow, my kid couldn't have gotten a job like that without being qualified,'" McSally said. "There are legitimate questions ... that should be followed through on in some appropriate manner. If people are looking on trying to get the facts on that through their appropriate roles, that's fine.

"What the House is now saying is they're going to bring in John Bolton and others, again if they had concerns they should have done that in the first place."

Republic reporter Yvonne Wingett Sanchez contributed. Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

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