WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s defense team launched its arguments in the Senate on Saturday with two repeated messages: “The president did absolutely nothing wrong,” and Trump’s own favorite, there was no “quid pro quo.”
Trump is currently on trial in the Senate after being impeached by the House for pressuring the Ukrainian government to open an investigation that could benefit him in the 2020 presidential election and withholding military aid until it did so, and then obstructing Congress’s efforts to look into the matter. Trump himself has said he wanted Ukraine to launch an investigation into the son of potential 2020 opponent and former Vice President Joe Biden.
But Trump’s defense argued that Trump wasn’t the one interfering with the election ― in fact, they said, now Democrats are, through a process that has involved selective leaks, closed door meetings and incomplete presentation of facts.
“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history, and we can’t allow that to happen,” said White House counsel Pat Cipollone.
He said earlier that Democrats were asking the Senate to overturn the 2016 election and interfere in the next one ― something that could be argued for any removal from office in an election year.
“They’re asking you to remove President Trump from the ballot in an election that’s occurring in approximately nine months,” Cipollone said. “They’re asking you to tear up all of the ballots across this country ... take that decision away from the American people.”
Trump’s attorneys suggested at the beginning of the day that they plan to spend far less time defending the president than House Democratic impeachment managers spent arguing for the prosecution. While Democrats spent all of the 24 hours allotted by the rules, Trump’s team plans to spend less than three hours on Saturday and far less than the 24 total. They argued that they don’t need the time, again referring to the election.
“We will finish efficiently and quickly so we can all go have an election,” Cipollone said.
The fact that Democrats took up all of their allotted 24 hours to argue their case came up repeatedly. Trump’s attorneys argued that, in all of that time, the House managers had failed to include certain details. Mike Purpura, deputy counsel to the president, noted that Ukrainian leaders have said they did not feel pressured, that some witnesses have said they didn’t know the assistance was paused (others have said they did), that aid was eventually approved and that Trump’s support for the nation was stronger than his predecessor’s. Purpura said that by suggesting Trump did pressure Ukraine, Democrats were effectively accusing Ukrainian leaders of lying.
Trump’s defense implied that Democrats were overstepping simply because they didn’t agree with the president’s decisions.
“Disagreeing with the president’s foreign policy is not an impeachable offense,” Trump attorney Jay Sekulow said.
Trump’s team accused Democrats of acting nefariously behind the scenes ― Republicans have claimed that interviewing witnesses in a secure room (that was accessible by many GOP lawmakers) was part of a cover-up ― and holding only staged public hearings. The first clip Trump’s defense played was a favorite among Republicans: video of House impeachment manager Adam Schiff (R-Calif.) doing an exaggerated paraphrase of Trump’s call with Ukraine.
They said repeatedly that the House Democrats had held something back.
“The House managers didn’t tell you ― why not?” Purpura said at one point.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.