President Donald Trump charged Thursday without evidence that the pharmaceutical industry was behind House Democrats' impeachment proceedings, suggesting it was payback for his administration's effort to lower drug costs.

"Lowering the cost of prescription drugs, taking on the pharmaceutical companies, you think that’s easy, it’s not easy. It’s not easy. ... I wouldn’t be surprised if the hoax didn’t come a little bit from some of the people that we’re taking on." Trump said.


"They’re very powerful, they spend a lot of money, spend I think more money than any other group in the world actually in terms of lobbying and lobbying abilities. And I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the nonsense that we all have to go through, but that I go through, wouldn’t be surprised if it was from some of these industries like pharmaceuticals that we take on."