Trump impeachment trial: Senators to conclude asking questions during Thursday session
President Trump’s lead defense lawyer on Thursday turned Nancy Pelosi’s own words against her — asserting that she was right when she said in March that impeachment was too divisive and would rip the country apart.
“That should end it. Speaker Pelosi was right when she said that. Unfortunately, she didn’t follow her own advice,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone said in a response to a question from GOP senators.
“Impeachment of a president in an election year with the goal of removing the president from the ballot [is] the most massive election interference we’ve ever seen. It’s political interference, and it’s wrong. It would tear us apart for generations.”
Cippolone then noted that it was important that the House later voted on a formal resolution on impeachment — because voters who oppose the effort can “throw them out” of office.
“If you’re going to say that the votes of the American people will be disallowed, if the American people decide that they don’t like what’s happened here, they don’t like the constitutional violations, they can do something about it. They can throw them out,” the lawyer continued.
“We should never consider removing the name of a president on the ballot on a purely partisan basis in an election year.”
Pelosi initially opposed impeachment but changed course after a whistleblower’s revelations about Trump’s efforts to have Ukraine announce probes into Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
At the time, Trump was withholding $391 million in security aid to the country, money that was ultimately released on Sept. 11.
Earlier, Jay Sekulow argued at the Senate impeachment trial that such a proceeding during an election year does a “disservice” to American voters.
Noting that the country is just days away from the Iowa caucuses, Sekulow said senators are “discussing the possible impeachment and removal of the president … not only during the election season, in the heart of the election season, and I think this is a disservice to the American people.”
Sekulow, the president’s personal lawyer, said the House acted with haste in December when it voted to impeach the president but then waited 33 days to present the articles of impeachment to the Senate so a trial could begin.
“And now they’re asking you to do the investigation,” Sekulow said.
“So we think that this points to the exact problem taking place here, and that it is what my colleague Mr. Cipollone has said: ‘This is taking the vote away from the American people.’”
Sekulow was responding to a question from GOP Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Ben Sasse of Oklahoma, Martha McSally of Arizona, Mike Crapo of Idaho and John Thune of South Dakota.
They asked how much weight the Senate should give to the fact that impeachment would disqualify Trump from “ever holding future federal office” and whether that would “undo that democratic decision and kick the president off the ballot in this year’s election.”
Senators will finish posing questions to the legal teams representing House Democrats and Trump in the Senate trial Thursday, leading the way for a vote on witnesses or even acquittal by Friday.
Like the session Wednesday, senators were able to submit written questions to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who then read them aloud to the appropriate legal team.
The questions alternated between Republicans and Democrats.
Responses were limited to five minutes.
Under the impeachment trial’s rules, senators were given 16 hours over two days — eight hours per day — to ask questions.
Following the conclusion of the questioning session, the Senate will debate for four hours on whether to call witnesses or seek additional documents.
That’s likely to happen Friday.
Democrats need four GOP senators to vote with them to pass a motion for witnesses.
Republicans control the chamber 53-47 and 51 votes are required to approve a motion.
As of Thursday morning, only Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah have signaled they would support calling witnesses.
If the vote for witnesses fails, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could quickly call for a vote on acquittal.
