MSNBC host Ari Melber argued that congressional Democrats have not made the case to convict President Trump on one of the two impeachment charges.
Melber, who hosts The Beat with Ari Melber, claimed Friday that the House impeachment managers had made strong points to support the abuse of power charge, but argued that he hadn’t seen enough to convict the president of obstruction of Congress.
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The host argued that he’s seen “overwhelming factual evidence and first-person accounts to support constitutional abuse of power but said he couldn’t see the same for the other impeachment charge.
“What the Democrats are arguing is that, basically, something that began three months before they actually voted to impeach should now be resolved by the removal of the president,” he added after being pushed by other panelists. “In every other case, including Nixon, we know the rule has been the president is allowed to fight within the law, is allowed to deny, and, yes, quote, defy, all the way up until the Supreme Court, which takes often more than a year.”
Melber concluded, “So is there enough evidence to support the immediate removal of a president, three months and you’re gone as a precedent, I haven’t seen them land that.”
Melber received pushback from both MSNBC legal analyst Maya Wiley and former Sen. Claire McCaskill. Wiley noted that, in her opinion, executive privilege is not a “blanket privilege” while McCaskill called him “wrong.”
