'The president did nothing wrong': key takeaways from Trump defense's opening arguments
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Version 0 of 1. President’s defense repeatedly came around to a basic argument: nothing Trump did in withholding aid to Ukraine was unusual Donald Trump’s legal defense team began their argument Saturday during a three-hour session of the impeachment proceedings against the president. Here are the five key takeaways: Saying Trump did nothing wrong In introducing their defense of the president, Trump defense attorney Pat Cipollone and his deputies repeatedly came around to a basic argument: nothing Trump did in withholding aid to Ukraine was unusual or merits impeachment. “You will find that the president did nothing wrong,” Cipollone said in his remarks, going on to focus on the arguments House Democrats made in the previous days. Attack the prosecution A favorite target for the Trump team was the Democratic impeachment managers, the set of congressional Democrats leading the impeachment proceedings for their party. Focusing on those lawmakers underscores the efforts the Trump lawyers are taking to delegitimize the process of this impeachment on technical grounds. “Let me be clear, the House managers over a 23-hour period kept pushing this false dichotomy that it was either Russia or Ukraine but not both,” Jay Sekulow, one of the Trump attorneys, said during the impeachment proceedings. Democrats, unsurprisingly, were unconvinced No one expected Democrats to be swayed by Cipollone and his team’s argument and Democrats weren’t. At a press conference featuring Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff, and other top congressional delegates said the Trump defense team’s arguments were flimsy. “They didn’t contest any of the facts,” Schumer said. “They just want to attack the House managers,” Schiff said.“It is a fairly elemental strategy. And I think that’s what you’re seeing here, it’s an effort to distract.” Trump wanted high viewership In trademark Donald Trump fashion, the president tweeted his thoughts before Saturday’s impeachment proceedings. Besides his usual tweets citing his allies, Trump also indicated he wanted a showy impeachment trial with all of the nation watching. He retweeted a livestream of the Senate floor. And before that one of Trump’s tweets included the time for when the Saturday proceedings would start. A day earlier he complained about the likely viewership on Saturday. What happens next Lawmakers adjourned the proceedings for the day at noon. Trump’s team is set to present most of their evidence on Monday and Tuesday. After those arguments senators are allowed to ask questions in writing. Supreme court Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the impeachment trial, will read the questions out loud. And then the Senate votes on if it should continue the trial. |