Posted on 11/22/2019 12:03:05 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
Analysis: Yet, as Democrats move toward a pre-Christmas vote, they still find a wall of Republican loyalists at President Donald Trumps side.
President Donald Trump presented little in the way of defense in the opening phase of his impeachment proceedings.
He refused to give Congress documents. He ordered subordinates to defy subpoenas. And he issued blanket proclamations of his innocence, over Twitter and in exchanges with reporters, without testifying under oath on Capitol Hill.
Meanwhile, as Democrats moved one step closer to a House floor vote on impeachment that they expect to hold before Christmas, a string of current and former administration officials collectively described for the House Intelligence Committee over the last two weeks how the president directed a concerted effort to aid his own re-election efforts at the expense of U.S. national security interests.
Specifically, they said he deployed several Cabinet officials, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on a mission to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to announce probes of former Vice President Joe Biden and a discredited theory that his own country framed Russia for interfering in the 2016 election, withholding $391 million in taxpayer dollars and a White House meeting to aid that effort.
"The question for impeachment is abuse of power," said Kim Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law who worked on independent counsel Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Bill Clinton.
"There is no Trump narrative laying out a legitimate public policy rationale for how the president, through Giuliani, treated Ukraine by refusing a meeting and withholding aid needed to fight Russia other than entrenching his own power."
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
They certainly left a pile alright...
How glaringly dishonest.
There was a pile, but it wasn’t ‘evidence’....................
Actually, they DID leave a pile of evidence. Dead serious.
People don’t understand what evidence is. Tawana Brawley’s testimony was “evidence”. And when you stand in a mowed down corn field in Kansas, it is evidence that the earth is flat. Same with being in a boat on the ocean.
But in both cases, that evidence is overwhelmed by evidence for the other side. And the funny thing about the hearing is, had it been a court of law, the only evidence we heard was from the prosecution’s witnesses. Cross examination was the only tool the defense had and it was more than enough to destroy the veracity of the evidence.
But yes, there was a pile of evidence.
I watched Schitt close the hearings yesterday. If he had talked another 10 seconds he would have burst into tears. Even he realized that they had failed miserably. The only ones who think that the dems really scored are their media puppetmasters.
The Republicans can't afford to lose 20% of their base. They'd better keep standing in that wall.
A pile of papers are in my trash can does that make it evidence?
Uh, excuse me, but how can the President present ANYTHING in the way of defense to this sham? The Dims wouldn’t LET him.
Ugh.
IMPEACHMENT is dead! Independents say NO!
Republican Congresss killed it! GAME OVER!
well, if “the House” has any evidence against PDJT, they’d better let the American people see it before they try a totally fake “impeachment”
or else we are witnessing the political SUICIDE of the D party machine!
we need to be prepared to help set up a replacement political organization....
Why, he didn't even subpoena a single witness! It's like he wasn't even trying to deny his many egregious crimes!!
They live in an alternate universe.
PDJT has nothing, zero to defend himself against
since he’s not been charged with anything
and
since the D’s have produced ZERO evidence that he’s ever committed ANY crime, whatsoever
Some of us are old enough to remember how the press treated Clintons impeachment.
Ken Starr lies all the evidence is fake and well... SURE he may have committed some crimes thanks to evil republicans dirty tricks but thats not important and this is a subversion of democracy!
Isn’t this the same NBC that’s being sued for 275 million by Nick Sandman?
That’s what I thought. I hope the jury rams it down their throat.
The show the Dems put on was done to pacify their followers, so they can say to them, “Look...we tried.”
Wouldn't it be something if Durham starts indicting before the IG report.
“President Donald Trump presented little in the way of defense “
Words fail. Despicable.
It was just a consensual relationship....Republicans need to stay out of our bedrooms, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.