Adam Schiff, House Intelligence Committee chairman, laid into President Trump’s legal defense for his Senate impeachment trial, calling the argument that abuse of power is not an impeachable offense an “absurdist position.”
The California Democrat joined ABC’s This Week on Sunday and reacted to a claim made by Alan Dershowitz, who joined the president’s defense team on Friday, that Trump cannot be impeached for abusing power. Dershowitz laid out his impeachment trial argument to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, repeating his previous claim that abuse of power isn’t impeachable.
Schiff fired back at the lawyer, saying: “The logic of that absurdist position that’s being now adopted by the president is he could give away the state of Alaska. He could withhold execution of sanctions on Russia for interfering in the last election to induce or coerce Russia to interfere in the next one.”
He continued: “The mere idea of this would have appalled the founders, who were worried about exactly that kind of solicitation of foreign interference in an election for a personal benefit. The danger it poses to national security — that goes to the very heart of what the framers intended to be impeachable.”
Rep. Jason Crow, who will be joining Schiff as one of the House Democrats’ seven impeachment managers, echoed that criticism, telling CNN after Dershowitz’s appearance that his argument would mean “no president can be held accountable.”
Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress late last year following the scandal surrounding his July 25, 2019 phone call with the president of Ukraine, during which he pressed the foreign leader to investigate 2020 Democratic front-runner, former Vice President Joe Biden. His Senate impeachment trial is set to begin on Tuesday.
