LIVE: House Managers Enter Day Two of Opening Statements
Schiff said that on Thursday the managers “will apply the facts to the law as it pertains to the president’s abuse of power.”
The Democratic House managers will continue their opening statements in front of the Senate for the second day.
Day 2 of Opening Statements
Remember what Schiff said yesterday? Well, Rep. Demings insisted impeachment is not about the 2020 election.
Rep. Val Demings pushes back on GOP accusations that the impeachment is about winning the 2020 election: “This trial is much bigger than any one election, and it’s much bigger than any one president. This moment is about the American people.” https://t.co/Av2C7OBnt7 pic.twitter.com/auPpqNAA5R
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 23, 2020
Rep. Sylvia Garcia alleged that Trump only cared about corruption when Biden surged to the top of the polls. She also claimed Trump is helping Russia meddle in our elections.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia: “The president asked Ukraine for this investigation for one reason and one reason only — because he knew it would be damaging to an opponent who was consistently beating him in the polls” https://t.co/Av2C7OBnt7 pic.twitter.com/sflL0oyBm3
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 23, 2020
“What is so dangerous is that Pres. Trump is helping [Russians] perpetuate [conspiracy theories about Ukrainian meddling],” House manager Sylvia Garcia says. “Our own president is helping our adversary attack our processes to help his own re-election.” https://t.co/LV1Y6QveIh pic.twitter.com/QQQmLFg0WR
— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 23, 2020
The Senate broke for a short recess, but Trump lawyer told reporters that his client did not commit an impeachable offense:
“We’ve got lawyers that are going to put forward when our side of the case goes that represents multiple schools of thought on what is and is not an impeachable offense, but they have one thing in common, that the actions alleged and the actions of the President do not reach that level no matter which school of thought you’re on,” Sekulow said.
Sekulow added: “We’re going to use a sufficient amount of time to not only defend our case and point out the inconsistencies of their case, but we’re going to do it in an appropriate manner. We’re not going to try to run the clock out. We’re going to do what we think, what our legal team thinks, is appropriate to present our case.”
House manager Rep. Sylvia Garcia explained to the Senate why Trump would want to hurt Biden:
Ms. Garcia said Mr. Trump was motivated by Mr. Biden entering the Democratic presidential race last year, and then leading in polls, meaning was a leading contender to run against Mr. Trump in 2020 and had shown strength in head to head polls.
“It wasn’t until Biden began beating him in polls that he called for the investigation,” Ms. Garcia said, adding that Mr. Trump wanted to tarnish Mr. Biden. “He had the motive, he had the opportunity, and the means to commit this abuse of power.”
She alleged that Mr. Trump didn’t care about any actual corruption.
“President Trump made clear he cared only about the announcement…of the investigations, not the actual investigations,” she said.
She also tackled the subjects of the investigations Mr. Trump requested of Ukraine: that Kyiv probe Mr. Biden and his son Hunter, as well as the theory that Ukraine, not Russia, hacked a Democratic National Committee server in the 2016 election.
She played clips from officials who said they didn’t know of any corruption by the Bidens — and that the senior Biden was a central part of international efforts to clean up corruption in Ukraine — and that there was no evidence that Ukraine hacked the DNC server.
“In short,” Ms. Garcia said, “the allegations against Vice President Biden are groundless, and so there is no comparison, none at all, between what he did and President Trump’s abuse of power.”
Recap
On Wednesday, the managers argued in front of the Senators that “Trump’s efforts to press Ukraine to open investigations that could help him politically warrant his removal from office.”
At the end of the day, Schiff promised that the managers on Thursday “will go through the law, the Constitution and the facts as they apply to Article I.” They “will apply the facts to the law as it pertains to the president’s abuse of power.”
If all 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats vote to have witnesses and evidence in the trial they need four Republican senators vote with them.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney have dropped hints they would like to hear from witnesses and read the evidence.
They just need a fourth senator. Georgia Sen. David Perdue said on Sunday “he would be ‘open’ to having witnesses at the Senate impeachment trial but ‘only within the scope’ of the two articles of impeachment.”
CNN provided a timeline on how the Senate could acquit Trump by the end of the month:
- Today: Democratic arguments
- Friday: Democratic arguments
- Saturday: Trump team arguments
- Monday: Trump team arguments
- Jan. 28: Trump team arguments
- Jan. 29: Senator questions
- Jan 30: Senator questions
- Jan 31: Four hours of debate on whether to subpoena witnesses and subpoenas, a vote on witnesses and documents and a vote on other motions; If all votes fail, the Senate could move to the acquittal vote
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Comments
Fact – nothing the president has done rises to the level of a crime or abuse of power.
Fact – you admitted this charade was because democrats can’t win an honest election
in 2020.Listening to Adam Schiff go on and on give new meaning to the term: Drone Strike.
So, could have this wrapped-up by SOTU? Cool.
What’s wrong, CNN, why the rush? Do presidential candidates need to caucus? You should’ve thought of that before your rep Peloshi sat on the articles for a month instead of passing them along.
Investigating criminal activity is part of the duties of the President; even if one of the accused is an opponent running for the office of President, and especially when the suspect has publicly annoy Fed his guilt. This is the proper use of Presidential powers, not abuse of power. Falsly trying to impeach the President is in itself a high crime and misdemeanor!
And at the time of the call, Joe wasn’t even in the race yet, so he was just another random citizen who engaged in corrupt practices.
Actually no. He wasn’t some random private citizen. Private citizens have difficulty doing “corrupt practices”. Government officials are the ones who do “corrupt practices”. The more senior, the more opportunity.
You’re argument against the dems ascribes ‘good faith’ to them, which they do not merit. At this point, anybody who doesn’t see what the Dems are doing as a scam is either stupid or actively promoting the scam. No amount of ‘facts’ will get them to change their minds. We just need to get rid of them next November, or sooner.
*Your. I can English good.
I’ve gotten bored with all this. Has anything new been shown, or is it all just theoretical posturing still?
So far as I can tell it’s all rhetoric and no beef.
I think I am going to quit even trying to follow this for a few days. I’ll be back when the Republicans take their turn.
The only thing interesting I have seen is a speculation that the impeachment isn’t really about Trump but about trying to get control of the Senate by forcing Blue-State Republican Senators to vote for acquittal and thereby put their seats in danger in November…
PolitiZoid: Schiff Hits the Fan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQJoar17jyo&feature=youtu.be
In juxtaposition to all the crap that all the Slimy Weasel Dems have been barfing up for the past couple of days, I would suggest the following:
The Repubs should show video of all the Dem Morons calling for Impeachment from day 1 of the President’s election.
Show Scum like Maxine Waters inciting crowds and bellowing “Impeach Foty Fie!”
Get lots of similar video and play it on a loop! The Dems babbled on for hours and hours – hell, play this because it will be brand new to the Clueless who only watch the MSM.
I think it’s a pretty good idea. Contact your Senators and Congressmen and see what they think.
JMO