Fox Business host Lou Dobbs berated former President Donald Trump’s impeachment defense lawyer David Schoen for allowing Trump to participate in the impeachment process.
He told Schoen during a Wednesday interview that mounting a defense against the impeachment charge, in preparation for the Senate trial next week, granted the proceedings some patina of legitimacy.
The Trump legal team believes the Senate trial represents a violation of the Constitution since Trump is no longer in office.
“This Senate has absolutely no jurisdiction to conduct these proceedings,” Schoen argued.
“I guess the question comes up, David: Why is the president even responding to this?” Dobbs asked. “Because he is a president of the past. He is not a president in office. Therefore, he cannot be removed from office. So why should anyone take seriously this absurd, stupid, malevolent claim of the radical Dems and pretend that there is something to it?”
Schoen responded that it would look bad for Trump to ignore the charge of insurrection, sent over by House Democrats after a Jan. 13 vote, in response to the Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol.
“I think that the former president believes that this process is ongoing. He understands the appearance to the American public of the process. He believes in the sanctity of the Constitution of the United States.”
But Dobbs, one of Trump’s most loyal defenders during his four years in office, wasn’t buying it.
“David, you just referred to the sanctity of the Constitution,” Dobbs said. “It does not honor the Constitution if you permit others to violate the Constitution. This is enabling. This is giving permission and approval to the Dems to proceed with this awful fraud on the Constitution, on the American people.”
Schoen was added to the former president’s impeachment defense team on Sunday. He and attorney Bruce Castor joined the effort after two other lawyers left.
