House Judiciary Committee Democratic lead counsel Barry Berke made the clearest and best case for Trump impeachment in less than 2 minutes.
Berke said at Monday’s Trump impeachment hearing:
But the reason we have not heard from all the witnesses or documents is because President Trump himself has obstructed the investigation. He’s directed his most senior aides who were involved in some of these events not to come testify. To defy subpoenas. He has told every one of his agencies with records that could bag relevant not to produce those records to us, to try to obstruct our investigation. Now, this is evidence that President Trump is replaying the playbook used in the prior Department of Justice investigation.
In that investigation he directed his white house counsel to create a false, phony record and document and lie, denying that President Trump had told him to fire the special counsel. He did many other things to try to interfere with that investigation. He attacked the investigators and witnesses and called them horrible names, just as he has done here.
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And President Trump thought he got away with it. On July 24th was the day that special counsel — the special counsel testified before this committee and the House Intelligence Committee. The 24th. It was exactly the following day, the 25th, that President Trump spoke to president zelensky in furtherance of his Ukrainian scheme. He thought he got away with it and he thought he could use his powers to interfere with that investigation, so he could do what he wanted. He could act like he was above the law. And if he got caught, he would again use his powers to try to obstruct the investigation and prevent the facts from coming and that’s exactly what he did.
But fortunately, fortunately, because of the true American patriots who came forward to testify, despite the threats by the president against the people who worked in his own administration, they told the story. They on their own produced documents that provide uncontroverted, clear and overwhelming evidence that President Trump did this scheme. He put his political re-election interests over the nation’s national security and the integrity of its elections.
Video:
Democratic lead counsel Barry Berke just made the clearest and best case for Trump impeachment. #impeachmenthearing pic.twitter.com/X9HvKMv7ti
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) December 9, 2019
Berke took less than two minutes to lay out the case against Trump. The reason why the Russia investigation playbook has failed Trump this time is that there is direct evidence of the president’s scheme. Witnesses have come forward, and there is an easy story to tell.
Donald Trump abused his power to pressure a foreign country to interfere on his behalf in the 2020 election, and that’s why he deserves to be impeached.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
