House Democrats pressed into the second day of arguments in President Donald Trump’s impeachment case focused intently on the charge of abuse of power, which top prosecutor Adam Schiff said would leave senators with no choice but a finding of “guilt and conviction.” Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, acknowledged as he stood before restless senators forced to sit silently for another long day there would be “some repetition of information” from the overview heard on day one. But he promised a stitching together of the facts to an inevitable conclusion. “You’ve now heard hundreds of hours of depositions and live testimony from the House,” Schiff said. ’We will now show these facts and many others and how they are interwoven … to a finding of guilt and conviction.” The challenge is clear as Democrats try to convince not just fidgety senators but an American public divided over the Republican president in an election year. The top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, acknowledged Thursday that many senators “really don’t want to be here.” But Schumer said Schiff has been outlining a compelling case abou t Trump’s pressure on Ukraine and the scheme to cover up the charges and many Republicans are hearing it for only the first time. He contended they can’t help but be “glued” to his testimony. Once reluctant to take on impeachment during an election year, Democrats are now marching toward a decision by the Senate that the American public also will judge. They are one-third of the way through 24 hours of opening arguments. Trump blasted the proceedings in a Thursday morning tweet, declaring them the “Most unfair & corrupt hearing in Congressional history!” House Democrats impeached Trump last month, arguing he abused his office by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden while withholding crucial military aid. They also charged him with obstructing Congress by refusing to turn over documents or allow officials to testify in the House probe. Republicans have defended Trump’s actions as appropriate and cast the process as a politically motivated effort to weaken the president in the midst of his reelection campaign. Campaigning in Iowa, Biden stood by the effort to remove Trump from office. “People ask the question, ‘Isn’t the president going to be stronger and harder to beat if he survives this?’ Yes, probably. But Congress has no choice,” he said. Senators must cast their votes and “live with that in history.” Each side has up to three days to present its case. After the House prosecutors finish, likely Friday, the president’s lawyers will launch their 24 hours. It’s unclear how much time they will actually take, but Trump’s team promises not only to defend the president but to take apart the Democrats’ case. The Senate is expected to take only Sunday off and push into next week. “There’s a lot of things I’d like to rebut,” said Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow at the Capitol, “and we will rebut.” After that senators will face the question of whether they do, or do not, want to call witnesses to testify. On the first day of opening arguments, Schiff appealed to senators not to be “cynical” about politics, but to draw on the intent of the nation’s Founding Fathers in providing the remedy of impeachment and removal. He […]
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