Attorney for House Democrats Plays Misleadingly Edited Trump Tape at Impeachment Hearing
A Democratic lawyer in the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump showed a misleading video of the president during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
Joel B. Pollak of Breitbart reported that Norm Eisen, a former White House lawyer during the Obama administration, was questioning Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman, a witness at the hearing.
“Sir, in forming your opinion, did you review these statements from President Trump?” Eisen asked Feldman before rolling a clip of Trump saying he had a “right to do whatever I want as president.”
“I did, and as someone who cares about the Constitution, [the clip] struck a kind of horror in me,” Feldman replied.
But the president was not talking about an absolute constitutional right to do whatever he wanted.
The context of his remarks makes it clear that he was actually talking about a much narrower issue.
As Pollak explained, the quote came from a speech Trump gave on July 23 at an event for conservative student group Turning Point USA.
During the speech, Trump discussed the report of former special counsel Robert Mueller and its conclusion that the president’s campaign did not collude with Russia.
“Then I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president, but I don’t even talk about that, because they did a report and there was no obstruction,” Trump said.
The president appeared to be referencing his ability to fire Mueller.
His statements are in line with other comments he has made regarding Article II of the Constitution.
In a June interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Trump made a similar remark.
“Look, Article II — I would be allowed to fire Robert Mueller. Assuming I did all of the things, I said ‘I want to fire him.’ Number one, I didn’t. He wasn’t fired, OK? Number one, very importantly,” the president said.
“But more importantly, Article II allows me to do whatever I want. Article II would have allowed me to fire him.”
The Judiciary Committee hearings continued on Monday, with both Democratic and Republican lawyers testifying, according to NBC News.
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