Donald Trump's Impeachment Defense Is That Democrats Are Bad
WASHINGTON ― As the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump began on Tuesday, his lawyers offered a bombastic and truth-challenged defense of the president that insisted the real bad actors in all of this are the Democrats.
During a debate over a resolution laying out the trial procedures, the initial argument from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Trump’s private lawyer Jay Sekulow boiled down to a series of complaints about the process during the House impeachment inquiry ― most of which were false or misleading.
House Democrats presenting the case for impeachment explained how Trump abused his power by withholding military assistance from Ukraine, an ally effectively at war with Russia, while demanding a sham investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s highest-polling political rival in the 2020 election.
Cipollone said House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who now serves as the House impeachment manager, “made false allegations about a telephone call,” but he didn’t specify what was false.
On his now-famous July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump asked Zelensky to look into Biden and his son Hunter. He later said publicly that he wanted Ukraine to start “a major investigation into the Bidens” ― which is essentially the heart of the Democrats’ abuse of power case.
For the rest of the afternoon, Trump’s team complained about process. Sekulow claimed that Trump “was denied the right to cross-examine witnesses,” access evidence or have counsel present during impeachment proceedings before the House Judiciary Committee.
These alleged refusals amount to “a trifecta that violates the Constitution of the United States,” Sekulow added.
But that isn’t really what happened. The Judiciary Committee invited the president to participate in its hearings and the White House said no. There is also no constitutional provision requiring the House to allow the...
