Closing out their case, House Democrats warned Friday in Donald Trump’s impeachment trial that the president will persist in abusing his power and endangering American democracy unless Congress intervenes to remove him before the 2020 election.
“He is who he is,” declared Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. He told the senators listening as jurors that Trump put the U.S-Ukraine relationship on the line in a way that benefited Russia just so he could take a political “cheap shot” at Democratic foe Joe Biden.
“You cannot leave a man like that in office,” Schiff said. “You know it’s not going to stop. ... It’s not going to stop unless the Congress does something about it.”
Next up will be the president’s defense lawyers, who will begin making their case on Saturday the nation’s 45th president does not deserve being removed from office.
Watch day 5 of the trial here.
“We will be putting on a vigorous defense of both facts, rebutting what they said,” and the Constitution, said Trump attorney Jay Sekulow.
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On Thursday, Democratic House prosecutors led by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff of California alleged Trump abused power like no other president in history, swept up by a “completely bogus” Ukraine theory pushed by attorney Rudy Giuliani.
On Friday, Democrats will focus on the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress’ investigation.
Prosecutors on Thursday argued Trump abused power for his own personal political benefit ahead of the 2020 election, even as the nation’s top FBI and national security officials were publicly warning off the theory that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election.
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“That’s what Donald Trump wanted investigated or announced — this completely bogus Kremlin-pushed conspiracy theory,” said Schiff, who is also chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
At the close of the evening Schiff made an emotional plea to senators to consider what was at stake as Trump is accused of seeking Ukrainian probes of political foe Joe Biden and Biden’s son while holding back congressionally approved military aid as leverage.
»The best lines from Trump's impeachment trial so far
“Right matters,” he said, quoting Army officer Lt. Col. Alex Vindman who had testified in the House. “Otherwise we are lost.”
“No president has ever used his office to compel a foreign nation to help him cheat in our elections,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, told the senators. He said the nation’s founders would be shocked. “The president’s conduct is wrong. It is illegal. It is dangerous.”
Democrats scoffed at Trump’s claim he had good reasons for pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Biden or other political foes. Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas, a former judge, aid there is “no evidence, nothing, nada” to suggest that Biden did anything improper in dealings with Ukraine.
After the president’s defense team makes their arguments, senators will then have 16 hours to ask written questions, and another four hours for deliberations. They will also then decide of whether they do, or do not, want to call witnesses to testify.
The U.S. Constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate (or 67 senators) to convict in an impeachment trial.
Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, while Democrats hold 45. However, two Independents — including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont — regularly caucus with Democrats, giving the nation’s blue party 47 votes.
If the Senate votes along party lines regarding impeachment — as did the House — 20 Republican senators would have to join Democrats in voting to remove the nation's 45th president from office.
The two articles of impeachment passed by House Democrats last month charge the nation’s 45th president with high crimes and misdemeanors.
Trump continued to blast the proceedings Thursday through social media:
The first article of impeachment charges President Trump with abuse of power.
Democrats allege Trump “solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 U.S. president election to his advantage.”
The “election prospects of a political opponent” refer to former Vice President Joe Biden, currently the front-runner in the still-crowded field of Democratic White House hopefuls.
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The president “also sought to pressure the government of Ukraine to take these steps by conditioning official U.S. government acts of significant value to Ukraine on its public announcement of investigations.”
Democrats argue the president “used the powers of his presidency in a manner that compromised the national security of the United States and undermined the integrity of the United States democratic process. He thus ignored and injured the interests of the nation.”
In the second article of impeachment, titled obstruction of Congress, Democrats charge Trump has defied House subpoenas as it has pursued its constitutional power of impeachment.
“As part of this impeachment inquiry, the committees undertaking this investigation served subpoenas seeking document and testimony deemed vital to the inquiry from various executive branch agencies and offices,” the articles read. “President Trump directed executive branch agencies, offices and officials not to comply with those subpoenas.
“These actions were consistent with President Trump’s previous efforts to undermine U.S. government investigations into foreign interference in United States elections.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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