‘If there’s not a fair trial, if they just shut it down, any acquittal will have little value…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) After more than two hours in which Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., rehashed the testimony of the House Intelligence Committee, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer fawned over the presentation and insisted that no deals with Republican Senate leaders would be considered.
That included his insistence that an agreement to allow former national security adviser John Bolton to testify in return for the testimony of Hunter Biden, whose corrupt actions—along with his father‘s efforts to pressure the Ukrainian government to drop an investigation—were central to the current impeachment effort.
“That trade is not on the table,” Schumer said.
Despite his unwillingness to seek compromise or negotiation, Schumer seemed to think that Schiff’s eloquence would sway his Republican counterparts.
“It was a tour de force and I think that a good number of my Republican colleagues heard the arguments for the first time powerfully, compellingly completely and succinctly,” Schumer said.
“I don’t see how any Republican could sit on the floor and hear Adam Schiff’s speech and not demand witnesses and documents,” he continued.
Following the first day of arguments, GOP senators unanimously rejected Schumer’s proposed amendments to allow additional evidence or witnesses prior to having the House impeachment managers and the president’s defense first state their cases.
The rules proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., closely mirror those established during the impeachment trial of former President Bill Clinton two decades ago.
Schumer has promised to continue dragging out the trial by forcing votes on his amendments.
He sought pre-emptively to downplay the likely outcome that the Senate will not convict Trump based on the existing evidence submitted by the House.
“If there’s not a fair trial, if they just shut it down, any acquittal will have little value,” Schumer claimed, insinuating that following the prior Clinton standard would not result in a ‘fair’ trial.
Schumer came under fire recently, however, after a letter he wrote during the Clinton trial appeared to take the exact opposite position.
Schumer refused to answer media questions as to whether Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-NY, had alienated moderate GOP senators by insulting them during the late-night session on Tuesday.
“The chief justice chastised both sides without naming anybody for rhetoric that he thought should be toned down,” Schumer said, deflecting the question.