Adam Schiff Hammers Republicans For Complaining About Their Own Rigged Trial

Adam Schiff wasn’t having any of the Republican complaints that the impeachment trial was unfair, because it was Senate Republicans who rigged the trial.

Transcript via CBS’s Face The Nation:

REP. SCHIFF: Well, look, I would only say with respect to Senator Murkowski and the other senators as well, they’re not mere spectators here. When the senator laments that there’s not a fair trial in the Senate, it’s up to the senators to make it a fair trial. It is within their power to make it a fair trial with four votes, with four courageous senators saying no we’re going to demand a fair trial no matter what this president may say. There would have been a fair trial. There would have been witnesses and testimony–

MARGARET BRENNAN: But is there anything you would have done differently?

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REP. SCHIFF: –So it’s not as if she was powerless to do something about this. Look, there’s nothing that I can see that we could have done differently because as the senators have already admitted, we proved our case. We proved our case. Now, the president’s lawyers have said time and again, I think, hoping through sheer repetition to make something true that is in fact untrue, that the process in this impeachment was different than in Nixon and Clinton. In fact, the president had the same due process rights, which he did not avail himself of in this process as in the prior ones. That is not an excuse that should be used by any senator for not fulfilling their obligation to hold a fair trial. They’re not spectators. They have control over the proceedings. And they could have insisted on witnesses and documents and for whatever reason, chose not to. And for those who would say, well, let’s let the voters decide when the president is trying to cheat in that very election, and they don’t want the voters to have the full information, they want the president–

MARGARET BRENNAN: Yeah.

REP. SCHIFF: — to continue to be able to cover it up. That’s just completely unsatisfactory.

Video:

Chairman Schiff was right. Republican complaints about the trial are bogus because they are the ones who approved the rules for the trial. If Lisa Murkowski or any of the other Republican Senators wanted a fair trial, they could have had one by going to Mitch McConnell and refusing to vote for his sham trial.

Senate Republicans who are voting not to convict Trump are trying to distance themselves from their role as Trump accomplices.

The Senate Republican majority rigged the impeachment trial for Trump, and now they are going to have to live with the consequences of their decision.

Jason Easley

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