Those who have had televised impeachment coverage up to their eyeballs will be pleased to know their TVs are being returned to them for the duration of today.
Moments ago, White House counsel Pat Cipollone delivered his closing comments, telling senators, “I think we’ve made our case.”
As though they needed one final tweak before leaving the Senate chamber, he first acknowledged that the Democrats knew “what the right answer is … for your country.” He then played a “mix tape” of Jerrold Nadler, Zoe Lofgren, Edwin Markey, and Chuck Schumer as they appeared in 1998. In the video, all were arguing precisely the case the Republicans have been making about the dangers of impeachment as a “policy tool.”
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Nadler in the video can be heard lecturing his fellow congressman that “there must never be a narrowly-voted impeachment or an impeachment substantially supported by one of our major political parties and largely opposed by the other. … Such an impeachment would lack legitimacy.”
Watch:
Pat Cipollone plays videos of Democrats warning of partisan, weak impeachment: “you were right” pic.twitter.com/YzgEq0xqLP
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 28, 2020
The question-and-answer phase of the trial begins tomorrow and extends into Thursday. Before gaveling the session closed, Chief Justice John Roberts instructed respondents to keep their answers under five minutes. It will be interesting to see if Adam Schiff can comply with that rule.