After being named lead impeachment trial manager, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) immediately made it clear that Mitch McConnell is Trump’s co-defendant.
Schiff said:
We always felt a certain urgency about this impeachment given that the president was trying to get foreign help and cheating in the next election. But as soon as we did take up and pass the articles Mitch Mcconnell made it clear he didn’t want a trial in the senate. That he didn’t want to hear from witnesses, he didn’t want documents and this time has given us the ability to show the American people the necessity of a fair trial. To expose the degree to which McConnell is working hand in hand with the subject of the impeachment, the president, to essentially turn what should be a trial into a sham. And that time has been I think very effective in not only bringing new evidence to light, and the evidence was already overwhelming. But also forcing senators to go on record. Do they want a fair trial when it’s fair to the president but also fair to the American people, or are they going to participate in a cover-up? I think it’s been very effective and as you have seen additional evidence continues to come to light that not only has bolstered an already overwhelming case but put additional pressure on the Senate to conduct a fair trial.
The last thing I’ll say is Mitch Mcconnell has taken to saying that the senate should only consider the closed record that comes from the House. And as if what the senate is is not a trial but an appeal from a trial. But of course the senate — the framers had in mind a real trial with witnesses and evidence and if McConnell makes this the first trial in history without witnesses it will be exposed for what it is and that’s an effort to cover up for the president.
Finally, some have suggested as part of your question, why didn’t we wait to get more testimony? Well, we have sought McGahn’s president — Don McGahn’s the president’s lawyer since April of last year. We still don’t have a final court judgment, so yes, we could have waited years to get testimony, further testimony from all of the people that the president has been obstructing, but that would have completely negated the impeachment power. By virtue of obstruction to prevent his own impeachment and that was an unacceptable course particularly when the whole object is to cheat in the election which is the ordinary way for dealing with a corrupt presidency.
Video:
Adam Schiff comes out of the gates immediately saying that Trump is trying to cheat to win the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/8DF96ywZh7
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) January 15, 2020
Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) created this situation by openly announcing that he is working with Trump on an impeachment trial cover-up. Chairman Schiff has a very interesting strategy of not only making the case against Trump but pressuring House Republicans to do the right thing in the trial. Schiff is making it clear that it isn’t just Trump who is on trial, but also Senate Republicans and Mitch McConnell, who will go down with this president if they embrace the cover-up.
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Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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